Automation in Indian Industries-Opportunities and Challenges

With newer innovations in automation happening at a never before seen pace globally, industries are looking at automation far more seriously now than at any other point in Indian Industrial history. Industries which have traditionally been highly dependent on manual labor are looking at automation very seriously. There could be a whole pile of reasons for this, rising labor costs, issues with labor unions, processes dependent too much on skilled labor, scarcity of skilled labor, etc., etc..

A good example of an industry suffering from the above problems would be the rubber industry. An industry I choose because most of my limited experience in designing and building automation systems was with the rubber industry. An industry which makes everything from automobile tires to tiny oil seals. Processes are highly dependent on labor. Even simple processes like loading and unloading from presses, movement of raw material from store rooms to press sheds, movement of finished goods from factory to storage sheds are dependent on a huge number of laborers. These are only a small percentage of the zones which are ripe for automation in such industries.

Automation of a process in a modern industry is quite simple considering the sheer amount of off-the-shelf solutions available from manufacturers like FESTO, Allen Bradley, Parker-Hannafin, COGNEX, etc.. With reasonable exposure to the solutions available from these giants, automation of a process becomes quite simple.

Now, the real challenge is in providing an automation solution to a process which has been in place for nearly 50 years. Any process which has been present in a factory for 5 decades tends to have support systems built around it. I am a strong believer that an automation system is not a standalone system like a laborer, it is part of the product being manufactured i.e. the product design itself needs to accommodate automation. A good example is automation of a pressing a key in the key-way of perfectly round shaft. The press force is around 300kgs. A simple pneumatic press should be able to do it. But positioning the shaft perfectly for the insertion is the challenge. Remember, you cannot go to high end vision and servo solutions simply because the ROI (return of investment) needs to be under 3 years. With the system going to replace a single operator there is no way a vision-servo combo is going to be recovered within 3 years. Easiest way is to make a notch in the shaft, in such a way that it doesn't affect its functionality and design a simple switch based positioning system before pressing. Simple, right? Nope. Convincing the supervisor, middle level management is close to impossible. The fact that product design itself needs to be tweaked considerably to accommodate automation needs to be accepted in a lot of companies.

Another major challenge which arises during automation of decades old processes is the machinery used in the processes. The machinery is, in most cases, of equal age as the factory shed foundation. Which means it was designed and built around manual labor. Even installing modern safety equipment like the OMRON sensor curtain would be a challenge. A good example would be the decades old curing presses installed in the rubber industries. Curing presses are usually positioned in rows. Now, modern automation system are very precise. The main, obvious, difference between an automation system and a manual laborer is that the automation system doesn't accommodate any variations in the systems it is interacting with. But, the decades old machines installed are not as accurate as their modern equivalents. From their positioning, to their movements during operation they are not designed to interact with any precision automation system. To install, say for example, a single ABB robot on a track to deal with, 3 presses would require these presses to be positioned accurately and have their movements designed to accommodate the robotic arm. Even cycle times, from press loading to unloading, would have to be programmed to suit to robot movement.

To design a highly customized automation equipment around these challenges is definitely not impossible. But its highly risky and fraught with challenges. It would be far more fruitful if the management can accept that automation is the future and if they are serious about automation then their product, machinery and factory need to be designed accordingly. It is not an easy overnight task, I accept that. But this needs to be done as industries who are not into automation will find it difficult to survive and compete with ones who adapt fast in the coming decades.

Interesting Machines-3 Steam Tractor

                          Videos: Steam Tractor replica built by Don Hunter. Took him nine years to build it

Rumely Steam Tractor

    History: Steam powered tractors moving on 4 large metal wheels were a common sight in the US of A from around 1890s to a few decades into the 20th century. It all started with Daniel Best, and his creation of his own company – Best Agricultural Works – and the development of the Best Harvester, which led him to creating the stream traction engine. Daniel Best sold his first steam traction engine for $4,500 in February 1899. They had one major flaw, the metal wheels easily sunk into the wet ground and the weight of these machines would make it very difficult to get them out. Benjamin Holt hit upon the idea of having "tracks" fitted onto the tractors so that the weight was evenly spread. In fact, the first commercial success for crawler tracks was by American Alvin Lombard. He assembled and patented the first steam log hauler track system in 1901. By 1917 he had produced 83 Lombard Log Haulers. Meanwhile, Lombard was selling licenses to other manufacturers to sell similar machines. Benjamin Holt purchased a license in 1903. Holt had established his own company, Holt Manufacturing Co., which would eventually become Caterpillar. He began designing his own crawler tracks based on Lombard’s.

Meanwhile a British company called Richard Hornsby & Sons was also designing. Chief engineer David Roberts patented his own design in 1904. His crawler tracks were steered by alternating the speed of the left or right track, whereas the Lombard system was equipped with a pivoting wheel for steering.

Eventually Holt’s company bought Hornsby & Sons' patent and basically controlled the crawler track market and their development. A merger between Best and Holt marked the beginning of the legendary Caterpillar construction equipment company.

Construction: The steam traction engine and the "tracks" were the main systems in the steam tractors. 

Crawler tracks, sometimes called caterpillar tracks, aid in the transportation of a vehicle. They serve the same purpose as wheels, except they distribute weight more evenly over a larger surface area, decreasing ground pressure and thereby keeping them from sinking in moist terrain. They are also more resistant to shrapnel, such as nails or broken glass, and sharp fluctuations in the ground.

The tracks are constructed from modular chain links, which, when put together, compose a closed chain. These links are broad and made of durable metal. Between every two pieces of chain, there is a joint that enables them to change the angle between themselves. This allows the track to be flexible and maintain an elliptical shape.

Crawler track assembly

Holt patent application for Track type tractor

 Steam Traction Engine: The first steam traction engines used a chain drive. However, it was more typical for larger gears to be used to transfer the drive from the crankshaft to the rear axle. Two different approaches were taken in the construction of steam traction engines. The first was to use the boiler as the central structure and then attach all the other parts such as the engine, drive gears, steering gear, and main truck to it. The other approach was to provide a separate framework on to which the boiler was mounted and the rest of the parts attached. In earlier models, the engine was usually top-mounted, placed on the boiler and the boiler, then mounted on the truck. In road locomotives, it was common to mount the engine under the boiler. In some models, engines were also side mounted or rear mounted. To preserve the engine from damage, heavy shocks and jars or heavy coil springs were placed between the boiler and the front and rear axles. Springs in the steering gear also assisted the front wheels from breaking when an obstruction was hit.

Power of steam traction engines was transmitted to the traction wheels by a simple train of spur gears made of cast iron. Most machines had two large powered wheels at the back and two smaller wheels positioned at the front for steering. These wheels were often made of steel. A collar on the front wheels helped to prevent slippage. The drive wheels had steel tires, either round or flat spokes and a cast-iron hub.

The first traction engines were geared only to travel at speeds of two to three miles (3.2 to 4.8 km) an hour on the road. Later engines were modified with two forward speeds—one slow and one fast.

Steam traction engines were very heavy and often weighed 45,000 pounds (20,412 kg) and, when operating, generated steam pressure of 150 to 200 pounds per square inch (1,034 to 1,379 kPa)

One of the most popular Steam Traction Engines in the US of A was the JI Case Steam Traction engine. Give below is a video and schematic of the same.

Interesting Machines-2 Orrery

What is an Orrery?

Simply put, an Orrery is a functional mechanical model of the solar system. But the definition is the only simple part of this beautiful mechanical system.

Image Source: Wiki

Antikythera Mechanism

Image Source: Wiki

Robert Brettell Bate, circa 1812. Now in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum.

Image Source: Wiki

A 1766 Benjamin Martin Orrery, used at Harvard

History

The Antikythera mechanism, which is dated to ca. 150 – 100 BCE, may be considered the first orrery that is still in existence. Discovered in the wreck of a ship in 1900 off the Greek island of Antikythera (hence the name), this device consisted of hand-driven mechanisms that represented the diurnal motions of the Sun, the Moon, and the then-known five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter).

During the 16th century, two astronomical clocks were built for the court of William IV, Langrave of Hesse-Kassel (in modern day Bavaria, Germany). These showed the motions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn based on the Ptolemaic system.  These clocks are now on display at the Museum of Physics and Astronomy and the Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments (in Kassel and Dresden, respectively).

Clock makers George Graham and Thomas Tompion built the first modern orrery around 1704 in England. Graham gave the first model, or its design, to the celebrated instrument maker John Rowley of London to make a copy for Prince Eugene of Savoy. Rowley was commissioned to make another copy for his patron Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery, from which the device took its name in English.

Design

As a functional model of the Solar system, the Orrery is designed to replicate the movements of the planets and their moons around the Sun. The rotational motion of the planets and their moons is controlled by gears. Each planet and its moon has its own gearing powered by a common hand crank, in most cases. The gear ratios are set according to the number of days it takes for the planets to move around their own axis and around the sun. 

There are different types of Orreries. A model that only includes the Earth, the Moon and the Sun is called a tellurion or tellurium, and one which only includes the Earth and the Moon is a lunarium. A jovilabe is a model of Jupiter and its moons.^[12]The below table gives the list of planets along with the time periods: Source: Wikipedia

Planet	Avg. Distance from Sun	Diameter	Mass	Density	No. of moons	Orbital period (years)	Inclination to ecliptic	Axial tilt	Rotational period (sidereal)
Mercury	0.39 AU	0.38 Earth diameter	0.05 Earth mass	5.5 g/cm³	0	0.24	7.0	0	59 days
Venus	0.72	0.95	0.82	5.3	0	0.62	3.4	177	-243 days
Earth	1.00	1.00	1.00	5.5	1	1.00	0	23	23.9 hours
Mars	1.52	0.53	0.11	3.9	2	1.88	1.9	25	24.5 hours
Jupiter	5.20	11.21	317.9	1.3	67	11.9	1.3	3	10 hours
Saturn	9.54	9.45	95.2	0.7	62	29.5	2.5	27	11 hours
Uranus	19.2	4.01	14.5	1.3	27	84	0.8	98	-17 hours
Neptune	30.1	3.88	17.1	1.6	14	165	1.8	28	16 hours
Pluto	39.4	0.18	0.002	2	5	248	17.1	122	-6.4 days

Given below is the gear train arrangement of the Ken Condal orrery

Construction and Craftsmanship

Calculating the time taken for planets and their satellites to move around the sun and their respective axes is not the tough part in making an orrery. As mentioned above an orrery depends on its gear train to move the planets around the sun. Getting the number of teeth and diameter right to ensure the correct variations in rpm for each planet is only the beginning of the complexity. The real complexity is in getting the gear train tolerances right and balancing the system for smooth movements of all planets, 

Fabrication of the gears to minimum backlash at the same time not too tight to increase manual effort when using the crank. Too much backlash increases rotation movement losses thereby increasing the inaccuracies in the orbit time. 

I don't deny there are more complex gear trains with better accuracies being manufactured. We still have to remember Orreries are made by individuals with very limited access to high end machining technologies and these are not mass manufactured gears but one-offs. It is a very demanding process to get the tolerancing right during design and to get the gears manufactured accordingly. 

Gears are usually made of whatever material the creator finds suitable, can be brass, steel, wood, etc. The Orrery has to look beautiful. Its probably one of the few machines in the world whose Form and Function are important in equal parts. Makes the machine all the more fascinating.A lot of respect to the people making these beautiful machines.

Sanderson Orrery: The Orrery of Professor Jules Verne.

One of my favorite machines and definitely one of the most beautiful machines in the world. Powered by a steam engine. The video is with the Mozart Clarinet is a wonderful tribute to this timeless beauty.

Interesting Machines-1 Linotype Typesetting machines

A machine which, I consider, to be a jewel in machine design. The printing process, in the pre-digital era, required these machines to "set the page". Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical types or the digital equivalents. 

The Machine: From Wiki "The linotype machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing sold by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related companies. It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast blocks of metal typefor individual uses. Linotype became one of the mainstay methods to set type, especially small-size body text, for newspapers, magazines and posters from the late 19th century to the 1970s and 1980s, when it was largely replaced by phototypesetting, offset lithography printing and computer typesetting. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over the previous industry standard, i.e., manual, letter-by-letter typesetting using a composing stick and drawers of letters.

The linotype machine operator enters text on a 90-character keyboard. The machine assembles matrices, which are molds for the letter forms, in a line. The assembled line is then cast as a single piece, called a slug, of type metal in a process known as hot metal typesetting. The matrices are then returned to the type magazine from which they came, to be reused later. This allows much faster typesetting and composition than original hand composition in which operators place down one pre-cast glyph (metal letter, punctuation mark or space) at a time.

The machine revolutionized typesetting and with it especially newspaper publishing, making it possible for a relatively small number of operators to set type for many pages on a daily basis. Before Ottmar Mergenthaler's invention of the linotype in 1884, daily newspapers were limited to eight pages."

The Inventor: From Wiki "Ottmar Mergenthaler (May 11, 1854 – October 28, 1899) was a German-born inventor. In 1876 he was approached by James O. Clephane, who sought a quicker way of publishing legal briefs, via Charles T. Moore, who held a patent on a typewriter for newspapers which did not work and asked Mergenthaler to construct a better model. Mergenthaler recognized that Moore's design was faulty and two years later he assembled a machine that stamped letters and words on cardboard. While he was riding on a train, the idea came to him: why a separate machine for casting and another for stamping? Why not stamp the letters and immediately cast them in metal in the same machine? By 1884 the idea of assembling metallic letter molds, called matrices, and casting molten metal into them, all within a single machine, was applied.Mergenthaler reportedly got the idea for the brass matrices that would serve as molds for the letters from wooden molds used to make "Springerle," which are German Christmas cookies. His first attempt proved the idea feasible, and a new company was formed, then fights with shareholders and unions followed with the press even in Germany attacking him. Finally success came with many honors, including a trip to his old home town.

Another fifty patents were required before Mergenthaler could show a more or less usable model to the New York Tribune on July 3, 1886. "

Even though digital printing has taken over from these beautiful machines the design, in itself, is hardly obsolete. Various mechanisms found in this machine are still widely in use in present day automation machines and will continue to do so as long as there are mechanical machines in this world.