Automation of Fixtures Using Hydraulic Power Pack for a Bogie Underframe

Automation of Fixtures Using Hydraulic Power Pack for a Bogie Underframe

Abstract:

In this era of automation technologies manufacturing sectors have placed very high demands on fast and reliable production methods. This work is the evaluation & analysis of the existing clamping system. The current system uses manual clamping of fixtures for holding the work piece in the proper position while welding process is being done on the part. The evaluated system uses hydraulic vertical swing clamps for holding the work piece driven by hydraulic power pack. Thus the new system achieves automatic and simultaneous clamping of fixtures.

Introduction
The automatic clamping systems in this paper are designed to work with the hydraulic actuation system (power pack). The automation of clamps using hydraulic vertical swing clamps are designed to work in a sophisticated, precise, reliable, safe as well as accurate production methods. The clamping systems are designed such that they withstand the huge retention forces applied from the work component onto the clamping elements. The work component used is an underframe structure of a train bogie. Underframe is nothing but the base frame of a train coach. The clamping systems are designed to hold the side sills of an underframe. The welding operation is performed to weld the end frames, cross members and various other components on to the side sills of an underframe. Also the clamping systems are analysed to test the load bearing capacity of a clamping system. Providing the proper work holding platform is an important issue in any kind of operations performed on the work component. In this way automation has played a vital role in providing a reliable and fast clamping system which will reduce the cycle time of clamping with the increase in accuracy thus decreasing the possible damages to the work piece. 1.1 Framework of the car body structure: The car body of the train consists of the following principal substructures.
1. Under Frame Structure
2. End wall structure
3. Side wall Structure
4. Cab structure
5. Roof structure

Automation of Fixtures Using Hydraulic Power Pack for a Bogie Underframe
Automation of Fixtures Using Hydraulic Power Pack for a Bogie Underframe

Hydraulic Circuits
A hydraulic circuit is a system comprising an interconnected set of discrete components that transport liquid. The purpose of this system is to control where fluid flows (as in a network of tubes of coolant in a thermodynamic system) or to control fluid pressure (as in hydraulic amplifiers). The approach of describing a fluid system in terms of discrete components is inspired by the success of electrical circuit theory. Just as electric circuit theory works when elements are discrete and linear, hydraulic circuit theory works best when theĀ elements (passive component such as pipes or transmission lines or active components such as power packs or pumps) are discrete and linear. This usually means that hydraulic circuit analysis works best for long, thin tubes with discrete pumps, as found in chemical process flow systems or micro scale devices.
Components: The circuit comprises the following components:
Active components-Hydraulic power pack Transmission lines- Hydraulic hoses Passive components- Hydraulic cylinders

Proposed System
Aim of the work: Aim of this work is to study and optimise the performance of the under frame jigs being used for the train coach production. The suggested approach would be to automate the clamping by using hydraulic system which will have reduce the cycle time of operation, eliminate human errors and may minimize the damages to the actual product at clamping locations. The total time taken to automatic clamping will be 4-6s. This system is designed to work with automatic clamping of all the fixtures simultaneously which includes total number of 18 fixtures.

Advantages of the system The advantages of the proposed system are as follows:

  • Reduces cycle time.
  • Reduces labour requirement.
  • Simplicity of the system.
  • Increases flexibility.

Disadvantages of the system The disadvantages of the proposed system are as follows:

  • It requires regular maintenance.
  • Load/unload time may increased slightly because of the need to connect the hydraulic hoses.

Reference And Download Report:

http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jmce/papers/vol10-issue1/O01017888.pdfOpens in a new tab.

Sachin Thorat

Sachin is a B-TECH graduate in Mechanical Engineering from a reputed Engineering college. Currently, he is working in the sheet metal industry as a designer. Additionally, he has interested in Product Design, Animation, and Project design. He also likes to write articles related to the mechanical engineering field and tries to motivate other mechanical engineering students by his innovative project ideas, design, models and videos.

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