International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology E-ISSN 2277 – 4106, P-ISSN 2347 – 5161 ©2016 INPRESSCO ® , All Rights Reserved Available at http://inpressco.com/category/ijcet Research Article 437| MIT College of Engineering, Pune, India, AMET 2016, INPRESSCO IJCET Special Issue-4 (March 2016) Process Automation of Chiller Plant for Welding Sub-Assembly Vaibhav V. Kulkarni * , Kaustubh Joshi, Vishwesh Kugaonkar, Prasad Honrao and Aditya Patki 1 Mechanical Engineering, MIT College of Engineering, Pune, India Accepted 02 March 2016, Available online 15 March 2016, Special Issue-4 (March 2016) Abstract In order to join parts successfully in a robotic welding application, individual parts must be aligned precisely and held securely in place while the welding is proceeding. An important consideration, then, is the design of a fixture which holds the individual parts in the proper alignment. The tool must allow for quick and easy loading, it must hold the parts in place securely until they are welded together and must allow the welding gun unrestricted access to each weld point. However, loading and unloading stationary jigs of the robot cell can be time consuming and impractical. It is often more efficient to have two or more fixtures on a revolving workpiece positioner, despite a higher initial cost. With a revolving table for instance, the operator can load and unload while the robot is welding. Obviously, this speeds up the process and keeps the robot welding as much of the time as possible. Keywords: Manipulator, design, automation, fixtures, positioners, welding. 1. Introduction 1.1 Need 1 We need to develop improved welding process control and automation techniques considering current international concerns about the restricted availability of skilled welders, the increasing need to improve occupational health and safety both in the workshop and general environment, pressure to improve productivity and reduce cost and the need to maintain joint integrity in critical structures. The shortage of skilled welders has been highlighted in the media; for example The Wall Street journal reviewed the problem in 2006 indicating a major shortage of welders and escalating weekly earnings. The same article claimed that on current estimates demand for skilled welders in the USA will outstrip supply by 200000 by 2010. This is by no means an isolated problem; it has be reported as an international problem in countries such as Japan, and Australia as well as in Western Europe. There is believed to be a link between the perceived OH&S hazards associated with welding and the ability to recruit new welding personnel. OH&S is an issue which must be addressed due to our moral responsibility to welders and society in general as well as the recent and sometimes ill-conceived spate of litigation which often exploits our lack of technical knowledge concerning the physical effects of welding hazards. In terms of cost and productivity it is known *Corresponding author: Vaibhav V. Kulkarni that in most common welding operations (on plain carbon steel) labour accounts for 70 to 80% of the total welding cost. Since labour costs are escalating, and will inevitably do so even in developing economies, total fabrication costs will increase accordingly. Productivity improvements are difficult to envisage in such a labour intensive, highly skilled and OH&S affected environment. So how can we use technology to radically change this seemingly endless cycle? I would suggest that all the tools we need are either available. By application of current and emerging developments we can: 1.Reduce skill requirements 2.Enhance training 3.Improve OH&S 4.Improve productivity 5.Reduce cost 6.Improve quality A part of this automation involves design and building of a manipulator to hold the components. In industrial ergonomics a manipulator is a handling assist device used to help workers lift, maneuver and place articles in process that are too heavy, too hot, too large or otherwise too difficult for a single worker to manually handle.. A good example would be a turn-tilt table that can maneuver components as per requirement. Such manipulators can replace existing manual handling techniques. The conventional techniques tend to be time consuming and laborious. This in turn increases the production time of the products by reducing handling time or product downtime.