POSTED: 21 Nov, 2022

Centre Director, Prof Jonathan Roberts and InfraBuild’s Industry 4.0 Lead, Andrew Thomas were recently interviewed by Industry Update about the Shorts Project.

InfraBuild’s problem was that off-the-shelf solutions to automate the detection and removal of ‘shorts’ couldn’t deal with the variety of bars produced by the steel manufacturer.

ACC’s team of engineers and researchers from Queensland University of Technology and University of Technology, Sydney, worked with InfraBuild’s team at the steel mill to design and test a handful of possible solutions over six months.

This involved building a life-sized, working version of InfraBuild’s conveyor system and using an industrial robot to pick up and move steel bars.  InfraBuild wanted the solution to fit into existing operations rather than requiring extensive changes to plant, equipment or processes. A cobot meant a straight-forward implementation and the option to switch back to manual if, for some reason, the cobot failed.

Read the article: https://www.industryupdate.com.au/article/%E2%80%98shorts%E2%80%99-project-steel-manufacturer-collaborates-cobot-design

Industry Update was established in 1995 by its publisher, Scott Filby, with the sole aim of producing Australia’s most comprehensive, response driven manufacturing publication.

Now, more than 21 years on, Industry Update is market leader and continues to focus on understanding the needs of the manufacturing industry and delivering results for advertisers and readers.