Development of a Mathematical model for integration of Robots in a Steel Manufacturing Plant

The use of computer-controlled robots is increasingly picking up in today’s manufacturing industries. Industrial robot application in manufacturing industries allows for improved flexibility and configurability required for providing product variability. However in technologically low developed countries steel manufacturing tasks in steel industries are mainly executed manually. Due to the demand for improved product quality productivity safety and reduction in manufacturing costs there is a need for these plants to integrate robots into the operations. Two automated steel manufacturing Plants A and B consisting of three manufacturing cells were considered during the research. The aim was to study the material handling systems used in each manufacturing cell the material storage systems steel manufacturing processes the adaptability of each manufacturing cell to new technologies and the current steel manufacturing technologies to identify manufacturing tasks suitable for robot integration.