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ISSN No: 2309-48

International Journal of Advanced Engineering and Global Technology

ii Vol-2, Issue-12, December 201

172 www.ijaegt.com

Low Cost Automation(LCA): A Case Study

Sameer S. Gajmal1 , Prof. Sudhir.G Bhatwadekar 2 1Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gharda Institute of

Technology, Lavel2Associate Professor, Department of Production Engineering, K.I. T.’s college of

Engineering, Kolhapur.

Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Automation is the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services. In today’s world for any industry to survive

in the competitive market, must go for automation. Automation demands huge capital

investment which requires mass production for quick return on investment. Hence Large

Scale Industries can afforded and opt the option of automation, whereas medium and small

scale industries find it very difficult adopt automation. Low cost automation (LCA) is one

solution especially for medium and small scale industries. Automation demands replacement

of conventional machines by CNC, VMC, SPM’s, etc, manual mater ial handling by

conveyor’s, AGV’s and many more things. In the present paper a case study is discussed

which includes application of Low cost automation concept by replacing conventional Radial

Drilling Machine by Special Purpose Horizontal Multi Spindle Drilling Machine. This SPM

was in-house designed and developed by using the spare parts of old machines which weredeclared as scrap by other industries. Due this there was a huge saving in the manufacturing

cost of this SPM. This newly developed SPM not only increased the production rate by about

85% but also made it possible the machine operator to operate another machine along with it

with no compromise in quality requirements.

Keywords: Automation, SPM, LCA.

1.INTRODUCTION: Automation is a set of technologies that results in

operation of machines and systems without

significant human intervention and achieves

performance superior to manual operation. Intoday’s world for any industry to survive in the

competitive market, must go for automation.

Automation demands huge capital investment for

replacing the conventional machines by CNC,

VMC, SPM’s, etc, manual material handling by

automated material handling systems like

conveyor’s, AGV’s and many more things. Large

Scale industries which do have huge production

afford to go for huge capital investment and opt

automation at various levels. But medium and

small scale industries mostly do not go for

automation due to huge capital investment. That

means even though medium and small scale

industries desires to go for automation are unable

adopt it. Low cost Automation (LCA) is one

solution to medium and small scale industries.Various Special Purpose Machines, Jigs, Fixtures,

material handling systems can be designed and

developed by using the concept of LCA.

As per the design requirement choose the spare

parts from the old , unutilized and scrapped

machines, mechanisms. Inspect those spare parts

for the requirements and use them for developing

new SPM’s , Jigs. Fixtures, etc. This will reduce

down the manufacturing cost to almost 50 -70%.

Thus medium and small scale industries can also

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TABLE-IISpecification Com onent

Job-I Job-II Job-III

Hole - A Diameter of Hole Ø15.00 mm Ø15.00 mm Ø15.00 mm

Length of Hole 330 mm(Thro) 462 mm(Thro) 592 mm (Thro)

Hole - B Diameter of Hole Ø11.40 mm Ø11.40 mm Ø11.40 mm

Length of Hole 330 mm(Thro) 462 mm(Thro) 592 mm(Thro)

Hole - C Diameter of Hole --- --- Ø15.00 mm

Length of Hole --- --- 372 mm (Blind)

The block was having one operation of Main OilGallery (MOG) Hole Drilling.

(MOG) hole drilling (3 Nos.) which are

through & 592 mm long.

Machine used is Radial Drilling with

Drilling Jig.

For getting these holes produced half of

the drilling length is achieved by drilling

from one (Rear) side & remaining by

drilling from opposite (Front) side.

Drills used are extra long (450 mm),H.S.S., taper shank, twist drills.

Clamping of the job is done manually; &

location is by using dowel pins.

Presently the number of jobs (4Cylinder)

produced per shift is 11(very less).

Reason: drilling very long length holes

(592mm) with wood pecking action in two

set-ups.

Frequent problem of drill breakage.

Fig.1 SAME 4-Cylinder Engine Block

TABLE-III

Total Time Required To Complete MOG Hole Drilling Operation On One Job = 29.0 + 14

Total Time available per shift = 8 x 60 = 480 minutes

Production Rate per Shift = 480/ 43 = 11.16 ≈ 11 Jobs.

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As mentioned above by using radial drillingmachine the production rate was only11 Jobs/

shifts.

Other problems which were frequently observed

were:

High Tooling Cost: As the drills used were

extra long drills, frequent breakage of

drills was resulting into high tooling cost.

High Fatigue to the Operators: Due to

frequent change of drills, drilling speeds,

spindle (drill) positions, loading unloadingof jig plates the operator was feeling high

amount of fatigue. Also due to manual

wood pecking action.

Expected Production Rate: As per the

demand from SAME TRACTORS,

ITALY, the production rate expected was

600 Jobs/ month i.e. about 25 Jobs/ day.

Quality: As far as quality was concerned,

the present set up was capable enough to

satisfy the quality requirements in the

MOG drilling operation. As the holes being drilled were used just to carry the

lubricating oil (as per the name; Main Oil

Gallery Hole) 1.5 mm drill-shift was

allowed and the present set-up was givingacceptable results (About 0-1% rejection)

5 - 10 % rework during the final

inspection was one of the major problem

being observed.

3.1 COMPANY’S REQUIREMENT:

1. Increased Production Rate: As

mentioned above company’s requirement

was to satisfy the demand of 600

Jobs/Month i.e. about 25 Jobs/ day.2. Consistent Quality: As far as quality was

concerned the company’s expectation was

to achieve the same quality level as that of

the present set-up i.e. with radial drilling

machine with 0% rejection combined with

0% rework.

3.

Low Cost Automation: To achieve the

above two targets it was clear that the

modified new set-up was going to be very

costly. Company’s expectation was to

Enhance Quality as well as Production ratewith low cost automation.

Therefore increasing the rate of production of this

particular block was the Company’s Requirement

being identified.

3.2 BRIEF ABOUT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPM

TABLE-IV List of Operations

OP.NO. OPERATION MACHINE TOOLING

01 Top- Bottom Milling SPM Milling Fixture

02 Front- Rear side Milling SPM Milling Fixture

03 Dowel Hole Drilling Radial Drilling M/c Drilling Jig

04 LH-RH Side Pad Milling SPM Milling Fixture

05 FIP Pad Milling Vertical Milling M/c Milling Fixture

06 Cap seat Milling Vertical Milling M/c Milling Fixture

07 MOG Hole Drilling Radial Drilling M/c Drilling Jigs

08 Front & Rear Side Drilling SPM Drilling Jig

09 Front & Rear Side Tapping Radial Drilling M/c --

10 Top Drilling Radial Drilling M/c Drilling Jig

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11 Bottom Drilling & Tapping Radial Drilling M/c Drilling Jig12 LH-RH Drilling & Tapping Radial Drilling M/c Drilling Jig

13 Cap seat Drilling & Tapping Radial Drilling M/c Drilling Jig

14 15 D9 hole Drilling Radial Drilling M/c Drilling Jig

15 Cam Boring Horizontal Boring Boring Fixture

16 Linear Boring Vertical Boring Boring Fixture

17 Top- Bottom Finish Milling CNC Milling Fixture

After studying the entire operations and the MOG

hole drilling operation sheet in detail it was

decided to design & manufacture a Horizontal

Multi-Spindle Drilling SPM for SAME 2,3 & 4cylinder engine block. Also another engine block

i.e. TATA 4 SP engine block was having similar

kind of MOG hole (14.25 X Thro). It was

decided to design and manufacture SPM to cover

the MOG hole drilling operation of TATA 4 SP.

Only additional requirement was:

Extra spindle in the gear box (front & rear

both) & the necessary gearing, bearings,

drills, bushes, etc.

In the drilling jig one more pair of dowel pins at the positions corresponding to the

positions of dowel holes of TATA 4 SP

block.

3.3 DEVELOPMENT OF SPM:Once it was finalized to develop a multi-spindle

drilling SPM we started working on it. First of all

we set our objectives discussed earlier and then

studied the requirements and constraints in the

development of the SPM. One of the important

consideration was to manufacture the SPM by

using Low Cost Automation Concept i.e. bymaking use of the old (scrapped) machine so as to

bring down the manufacturing cost as low as

possible.

The constraint was that the SPM should be

capable of performing the drilling operation on

SAME 2,3 & 4 cylinder block and also another

block i.e. TATA 4 SP cylinder block.

Another important consideration was to increase

the production rate.

Requirements of Multi-Spindle Drilling SPM: -

Following are the various arrangements to be

designed to satisfy various requirements of the

multi- spindle drilling SPM. Job Holding Arrangement:

Tool Holding Arrangements:

a) For SAME 2 & 3 cylinder there are

2 holes (15 & 11.40) from both

sides.

b) For SAME 4 cylinder engine block

there are 3 holes (15, 2 Nos. &

11.40 1 No.) from rear side and 2

holes (15 & 11.40) from front side.c)

For TATA 4 SP engine block there is

only one hole (14.25) from both

sides.

So there are total 4 holes on one side & 3 holes

on the other to be drilled, seven spindles are

required to be designed and manufactured.

Adjustable adaptors were decided to be used.

Use of Adjustable Adaptors: As per the name

they used to alter the length of hole being drilled

as per the requirement. Due to continuous usage

the length of the drill gets reduced, hence thelength of drilled hole becomes less to that much

amount of length. If adaptors are used the length

of drilled hole can be maintained constant by

operating the Adjustable Nut of the Adjustable

Adaptor.

Guiding Elements:

Bed Structure:

Drives:

Time Study:

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The total time required to complete MOG hole drilling operation with conventional Radial DrillingMachine is actually determined and tabulated as:

TABLE-V Time Study with conventional Radial Drilling Machine

Total Time for MOG hole drilling on Radial drilling Machine = 42.83 Min. ≈ 43minutes

Similarly the time study was also conducted for 5 samples jobs by using newly developed SPM. The

sequence of operation is as follows:

i) Machine cleaning

ii)

Component loading.

iii) Cycle starts i.e. locating + clamping + drilling from both LH & RH side simultaneously.

iv) Unloading the component.

The total time required in drilling the MOG holes by using Newly developed SPM is tabulated as

follows:TABLE-VI Time Study with MOG SPM

Particular Action Time required in seconds

Job1 Job2 Job3 Job4 Job5

Front and

Rear side

Drilling

Loading 30 32 30 31 31

Drilling 240 240 241 242 241

Unloading 30 30 28 30 29

Total time 300 302 299 303 301

Average 4.995 minutes

It is seen that the total drilling time for MOG hole drilling operation with radial drilling machine is 43minutes, whereas the time required for MOG hole drilling operation with newly developed SPM is equal

to 5 minutes which is considerably lowered. Hence the % saving in machining time is as follows:

Saving in machining time = [(43 - 5)/ 43] x 100 = 88%

Hence with the newly developed drilling SPM, the machining time can be saved as much as by 88%.

The next testing was for the accuracy of the holes drilled in the component by using the newly

developed SPM.

.

Particular Action Time required in minutes

Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Average

For Front side drillingLoading + Clamping 4.5 5.0 5

42.83

minutes

Drilling Time 12 11.5 12.0

Declamping +Unloading 3.0 3.0 3.5

For Rear side drillingLoading + Clamping 3.0 2.5 2.5

Drilling Time 17.5 18 17

Declamping +Unloading 3 3 3Total time in Minutes 42.5 43 43

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3.4 INSPECTION REPORT TABLE-VII Inspection Report

Particular Dimensions from Bottom Side

SideHole Size

In mm

Dim. As

per controlJob1 Job2 Job3 Job4 Job5

Front Side Ø15.20 172.5 ±0.25 172.55 172.48 172.48 172.71 172.70

Ø11.40 277.5 ±0.25 277.50 277.55 277.49 277.69 277.68

Rear Side Ø15.20 172.5 ±0.25 172.49 172.52 172.73 172.60 172.57

Ø11.40 277.5 ±0.25 277.53 277.54 277.45 277.50 277.69

TABLE-VIII Inspection Report

Particular Dimensions from Dowel Holes

SideHole Size

In mm

Dim. as per

control

Plan in mm

Job1 Job2 Job3 Job4 Job5

Front Side Ø15.20 234 ±0.25 233.81 234.21 234.20 233.85 233.90

Ø11.40 180.2 ±0.25 180.02 180.15 180.30 180.15 180.19

Rear Side Ø15.20 234 ±0.25 234.00 234.10 233.80 233.89 234.02

Ø11.40 180.2 ±0.25 180.12 180.15 180.32 180.30 180.25

This drilling accuracy was checked by using Digital Height Gauge ‘TRIMOS’.

It was very glad to found that the positional accuracy of all the three holes was within the accuracy

limits of ±0.25 and with consistency.

4. RESULTS AND FINDINGS:The important findings with the use of this newly

developed multi-spindle drilling SPM are:

Productivity is increased by reducing the

handling and machining (drilling) time as

all the three holes are drilled at a time.

This reduction in production time leads to

reduction in the cost of production.

As all the spindles are already fixed in

position; the positional accuracy of these

holes is ensured. This certainly reduces

the inspection timing and percentages

rejection, which leads to better quality

production.

The length of the ф15 X 327 blind hole

can be very well controlled by means of

adjustable adaptor.

It is observed from the time study that

there is substantial saving in production

cycle time by 88%.

The overall design of the SPM is such that

it provides full rigidity and sufficient

space for easy movements of the jobs and

of the operator.

The old scrapped machine was very

effectively utilized. This SPM is a very

good example of productivity and quality

improvement by using. A SPM

manufactured at very low cost.

The other side is that ergonomic deals with

operator’s comfort reduction in the undue strain

and fatigue through proper design of machine,

location of controls and ease of operation, etc.

Following are the finding in this regard:-

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I) Elimination of jig plate handling during theoperation: In the earlier procedure, the operator

has to lift the drilling jig plate and place it on the

face of the engine block to be drilled. Then do the

locating and clamping. This is a tedious work as

he has handle approximately 20-25 kg load every

time for loading and unloading the jig plate on the

engine block.

In the newly developed SPM, the operator only

has to push the job into the fixture base and

position it properly (Dowel hole exactly above the

locating pins) from the roller conveyor.Hence it becomes easier for the operator to load

and unload the component and not necessary to

handle the jig plates as they are fixed on the

fixture column.

II) Comfort during operation: As the SPM is

hydraulically operated the operator has to load the

job in the fixture base and start the cycle ON. So

there is no other work. After the drilling is

completed, Declamping is also automatic.

Operator has to pull the job out of the fixture base.

III) Lesser hand movements and reduced handlingtime: In the earlier case, the drilling jig plate was

fixed on the face of the block. Here the workerwas required to position the spindle of radial

drilling machine above the particular drilling bush

and then start the feed motion of the drill. Also

when one side drilling length was completed, the

job was required to be changed it’s position, so

that drilling can be done from the opposite face so

as to produce through holes. This certainly has

increased handling time which increase the

production cycle time.

The new SPM is designed in such a way that the

spindles are already positioned and the job isresting on bottom face, hence the drilling proceeds

from both (LH and RH) side simultaneously.

Hence not necessary to change the position of

block or change the jig plates. Operator has to just

load and unload the block and start the switch ON.

Thus definitely reduces the hand motion of the

operator and the unproductive handling time.

IV) Increase in production rate: In the previous

case production rate of (SAME 4 Cylinder) block

was 11 jobs/shift and in case of newly developed

SPM it is 96 jobs/ shift.

TABLE-IX Time Saving TABLE-X Increase in Production Rate

VII) Cost of development of MOG- SPM = 4.5 Lakhs.

TABLE-XI Cost of Manufacturing

Sr.

No.Item/Part Name Amount in

Ru eesRemark

1 Front side (Right) gear box 35,000/- Casting + Machining (Both-In-

house2. Rear side (left) gear box 35,000/- Casting + Machining

3. Fixture base 40,000/- Casting + Machining

4. Fixture column along with LH. And RH.

Side Jig plates25,000/- Fabrication, Casting +

Machining+ Purchase

5. H draulic ower Pack 40,000/- Bou ht Out

Machine Used Radial Drill

(old Method)

MOG-SPM

Cycle Time 42.83 minutes 4.995

minutesSaving in

Manufacturing

time.

88%

Machine Used Radial Drill

(old Method)

MOG-SPM

Production Rate 11 jobs/ Shift 96 jobs/

shiftsIncrease in

Production rate 96 – 11 = 85 jobs/ shift

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6. Machine Base

1,50,000/-

Components already available

in the company.

(Spare parts of Old machine

purchased from SAME Italy)

7. Guideways

8. Spindles, shafts

9. LH and RH side Hydraulic Feed Cylinders

10. Three clamping Cylinders

11. Assembly Cost 40,000/- Labour cost (5 persons)

12. Electric connection 85,0000/- On contract basis.

TOTAL COST OF DEVELOPMENT Rs.4.5/- Lakhs

TABLE-XII Saving in Cost

Purchasing Cost Rs.7 Lakhs

In-house Manufacturing Rs.4.5 Lakhs

Total Saving in Cost Rs.2.5 Lakhs

5. CONCLUSION:Interpretations of the results obtained, leads to

know the important achievement and performanceof the developed multiple spindle drilling SPM

are:

a) Increase in productivity with same quality

standards.

b) Reduction in production time.

c) Reduction in cost of production.

d) Operator (unskilled) can operate two more

machines along with MOG SPM with Comfort

and without Helper.

e) Tremendous saving in the operational time of

machining, with the newly developed multi-spindle drilling SPM.

f) Saving in unproductive time.

g) It can be seen that the loading and unloading

time is also reduced.

h) Proper arrangements for loading the job,

location of machine controls and ease of operation

reduces excessive strain on the operator and

results into comfortable working conditions.

i) Elimination of problems such as rejection,

rework in MOG Hole Drilling operation

Thus by adopting the concept of Low Cost

Automation, the overall benefits of automation are

achieved by replacing conventional Radial

Drilling Machine by hydraulically operated

automatic Horizontal Special Purpose Machine

Multi Spindle Drilling Machine at lower cost.

Total saving in the cost is Rs.2.5 Lakhs.

6. REFERENCES:

[1] P.M. Singru & Anish Alias, “Computer Aided Design of Machine(CADOM)”, Proceeding of International Conference on : “Intelligent Flexible Autonomous Manufacturing Systems” , IFAMS-2000, Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, 10 Jan.2000,PP164-171.[2] V.B. Bhandari, “ Design of Machine Elements”Tata McGraw- Hill Publishing Co. Ltd. New Delhi,25th Reprint, PP 234-246.[3] N.K. Metha, “ Machine Tool Design and Numerical Contr ol”, Tata McGraw- Hill Publishing

Co. Ltd. New Delhi, Second Edition, PP 179-219.[4] Tsung-Ming Lo and Jieh-Shian Young,“ Improvements of Productivity for PCB Drilling by Laser Driller Machine”, International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing vol. 15, no. 8,

August 2014, pp. 1575-1581.

[5] Biman Das & Uday Venkatadri & Pankajkumar Pandey,“ Applying lean manufacturing system to improving

productivity of air-conditioning coil manufacturing ”,

International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing

Technology, 24 November 2013,PP- 307 – 323.

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