1. “Industry 4.0” of forging operations

2. TEASER – Brief introduction (I)
Cold forging is one of the most-widely used near-net-shape manufacturing method particularly for automotive, aerospace and white-goods industries.
Cold forging is carried out with multi-stations machines, since it is not possible to give the final shape “all-in-one”. WP
Station 1
Station 2
Station 3
Station 4
Station 5
A five-stations cold forging machine producing ball joints for automotive industry
Courtesy: NORM Group

3. TEASER – Brief introduction (II)
Before every production (including already-produced samples), considerable amount of resources such as raw material and time are spent for the final set-up of each station.
Currently, the set-up is carried out by employing previous experience of the operators and “trial-and-error” methods.
In this project, semi-automated set-up system will be designed considering the Industry 4.0 practices.
The set-up system will have:
An image capturing and processing unit to capture the details of all samples
An algorithm that will compare the dimensions of produced samples with pre-defined tolerances and will offer new machine parameters

4. TEASER – Flow chart (I) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Initial set-up
First trial samples
Compare the first trial samples with the technical drawing
Recommend a new set-up parameters
Second trial samples
Compare the second trial samples with the technical drawing
Approval for the production 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5. TEASER – Flow chart (II)
Initial set-up of all stations will be done according to previous data.
First samples including those from different stations will be produced.
The semi-automated set-up system will capture all the dimensional features of the first trial. All the features of the samples will be compared with the pre-defined tolerances.
The semi-automated system will offer new machine parameters to meet the pre-defined tolerances of the final product.
Second samples including those from different stations will be produced.
The semi-automated set-up system will capture all the dimensional features of the second trial. All the features of the samples will be compared with the pre-defined tolerances.
If all the dimensional criteria are met, the machine will start mass-production.

6. Quality & Performance Award
ORGANISATION PROFILE (I)
NORM Group
Fastener solution partner for OEM
All in-house production
Biggest fastener manufacturer
in Turkey
Sales: €230 million
Markets:
Automotive
White goods
Machine production
2014 FORD-OTOSAN
Supplier of the Year
Gold Star
TOFAS
Quality & Performance Award
2011 FORD-OTOSAN
Supplier of the Year
Silver Star

7. Productivity Project Awards Large Scale Industrial
ORGANISATION PROFILE (II)
5th R&D Centers Summit
Metal Category
Winner
NORM R&D Center
Numerical simulations since 2000
Completed more than 25 government-funded projects
Patented products
Productivity Project Awards
Large Scale Industrial
R&D Projects
3rd place

8. PROPOSAL INTRODUCTION (I)
Vision: To increase the productivity of any forging-like manufacturing technologies by decreasing the set-up cost and time.
Motivation: Significant amount of resources are spent for the set-up for every forging operations. This project will substantially decrease the cost of cold forging and increase efficiency in terms material, time etc.
Content: The semi-automated set-up system with image capturing and processing unit (high resolution cameras or 3D-scanners) that will obtain all the dimensional features of the produced samples with adequate resolution. A new algorithm to compare the produced sample features with the pre-defined tolerances and to offer new machine parameters such as location of dies, size of punches, etc.

9. PROPOSAL INTRODUCTION (II)
Expected outcome: A semi-automated set-up system that will be employed for all forging operations. The system will be universal, i.e. will be applicable to all forging and forging-like production lines.
Impacts: The proposed system will substantially increase the productivity and will decrease the cost. The system will be easily implemented to all forging operations (hot, warm and cold) and production lines. This will be an important step to Industry 4.0 for the forging technology.
Schedule: Project details, such as work packages and time schedule will be arranged with the partner(s).

10. PARTNERS Current Consortium: NORM Group as the Project Leader
Partner search:
We are looking for partner(s) having expertise on:
Industry 4.0 applications
Expert systems
Software & algorithm development
Image Processing or 3D-scannnig

11. CONTACT INFO
Contact info:
Dr. M. Burak Toparli
Senior R&D Engineer
NORM Group R&D Center
İzmir, Turkey
/ Ext: 2214