The heavy steel industry is undergoing unprecedented change. Heavy machinery customers are demanding customised parts with increased complexity. GMKW provides solutions in the heavy steel industry to ease the transition to Industry 4.0. We provide value to our clients by optimizing their manufacturing via the integration of intelligent vision systems, vision guided robotics, data systems and part digitalization using advance part marking technology.
Smart Chamfering Systems
GMKW provide unmanned grinding/chamfering solutions that are unprecedented in the heavy steel industry. The system uses the CAD model of the workpiece to quickly generate a robot program.

The large steel plates weigh multiple tonnes and have hundreds of holes that require chamfering. The plates cannot be accurately placed on the platform due to their size and weight. To solve the problem, industrial robot are equipped with a 3D vision sensors and AI algorithms which identify and locate the large plates and holes. The robot can then adapt to the real-world situation and be guided to accurately chamfer the holes, efficiently and effectively
 
Smart Identification, Sorting and Coding
Pre-programmed repetitive task robotics cannot provide a flexible sorting and stacking solution for the heavy steel industry. Our intelligent vision guided “adaptive” robotics enable flexible solutions:

  • Identification: Parts are scanned & pattern matching is used to identify the parts and trace them back to their part numbers in the MES system.
  • Sorting: Vision guided robotics enables adaptive picking of the parts from moving conveyors.
  • Tracing: The physical part can then be marked for downstream manufacturing traceability.
 
Smart Stacking
In the heavy steel industry, heavy-duty metal parts are typically manual stacked by use of human piloted overhead gantries. This practice is not only inefficient, but it is also unable to form an automated production line.

Our smart stacking system uses vision guided robotics. In combination with identification and sorting parts can be organised in pallets or trollies by stacking the parts according to their part number, part type or other attribute.