In partnership with Hartwig, Autonetics has successfully installed and commissioned a Static Gauging Unit (SGU) for SAF Holland at their Warrenton, MO facility. This gauge is part of an automation cell producing parallel and tapered ends of heavy truck axle shafts.

Cell Operation

Pallets of part blanks are loaded into the cell. The tending Kuka Robot depalletizes the blanks and loads them into the Okuma lathe for turning. Once the turning process in the completed, the robot removes the part, presents it to a blow off station to remove excess coolant left over from the machining process, and then places the part on the Autonetics Gauge.

In less than 20 seconds the gauge scans the length of the part, measuring critical outer diameters, thread minor, thread major, and thread pitch diameter. The scan results are processed and a Pass / Fail determination is sent to the handling PLC.

The robot then removes the part from the gauge and loads the next.

Real Time Tool Offsets

Closing the loop between quality control and the manufacturing process, the SGU sends the latest gauging results directly to the Okuma Control via a network connection. Utilizing Caron Engineering’s AutoComp software, the Okuma control processes the results and updates the machine tool offsets.

This process allows the cell to operate autonomously and consistently produce prime parts with no operator intervention.