Technological processes in mechanical engineering. Automated process control systems

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Technological process is the basis of any production operation. It includes a set of procedures carried out in a certain sequence, the action of which is aimed at changing the shape, size and properties of the manufactured product. The main examples of technological processes are mechanical, thermal, compression processing. As well as assembly, equipment, pressure treatment and much more. In the conditions of factory production, the department of the chief technologist is responsible for carrying out such processes and processing technological documentation. The specialists of the department control the correctness of the operational moments. Correctly designed and well-organized technological processes in mechanical engineering and production of any other level make it possible to carry out the necessary procedures for the manufacture of relevant products with minimumcosts. Both material and forceful and temporary.

Mechanical engineering as a type of production

Engineering as a sectoral type of production is characterized by the use of universal equipment, due to which the processing of parts of various sizes and shapes, universal fixtures and measuring tools is carried out. This industry provides not only automated operation of devices, but also the use of physical human labor - after all, a significant amount of machine-building processes is carried out precisely through manual work and the efforts of highly qualified workers. In such plants, the cost of various parts is often estimated to be much higher, although productivity is much lower. Representative offices of such mechanical engineering include turbine, shipbuilding, chemical plants, as well as heavy engineering enterprises. Moreover, today among modern machine-building plants that work for mass or serial production, there are experimental research workshops, where work is carried out to create new models of machines in a single copy - and this is the prerogative of individual machine production.

However, it is still worth emphasizing that domestic engineering is aimed at mass production of cars. At the same time, the technological process of designing and manufacturing parts is focused on the production of a large number of identical products over a long period of time. At the same time, it is aimed at a narrow specialization.workplaces, semi-automatic machines, machine tools, modular installations. And special equipment, availability of universal tools and wide interchangeability of parts make it possible to coordinate the technological process with automated control systems.

Elements of machine production. Nuances

As in any technological process, mechanical engineering provides for the mandatory division of work procedures into specific areas of activity with the achievement of a specific result in this area of reproduction. Here it is important to distinguish and separate fundamentally different operational moments from each other.

What elements of the technological process are represented by the standard procession of machine building? Consider them:

1. Technological operation - an integral part of the overall process, during which the processing of workpieces performed by one tool (file, cutter) at one workplace (for example, a machine tool) is performed. At the same time, work can be performed by one or several workers at once. Based on the amount of work assigned to be performed, the technological operation can be simple or complex. The latter, in turn, can be dispersed into component parts, which are called installations in production.
2. Technological installation is an integral part of the operation performed at the workplace in a state of unchanged workpiece clamping.
3. Position is an integral part of the operation, which is carried out in conditions of an unchanged positionworkpiece relative to the tooling (not taking into account those movements that are due to the working movements of the workpiece itself or the tool itself).
4. Transition is an integral part of the operation, which is accompanied by the constant regime operation of the machine or tool.
5. The pass is the part of the transition that causes the removal of layers of metal (or other material if it is not metal).
6. Working reception - a completed action of an employee of the factory machine-building shop, which is accompanied by the fastening or removal of the cutting tool, the workpiece itself, and so on.

Structure of technological processes. Essence

The very structure of mechanical engineering is represented by the passage of the finished product through several different processing phases. Often these phases are represented by the procurement stage, the processing stage and the assembly stage. But what exactly is each of the phases in the structure of mechanical engineering?

Preparation stage

The procurement phase is characterized by the execution of procedures for obtaining blanks through the following methods:

1. Casting - involves filling a container, mold or cavity with a material that is in a liquid state of aggregation.
2. Punching is a procedure of plastic deformation of materials with adjustment of their shape and size.
3. Pressing - testing objects for strength (density, tightness) of a hydraulic or pneumatic nature in the process of pressure.
4. The landing is a blacksmithing operation,which consists in the deformation of the workpiece with a partial draft in order to create a thickening of the object by reducing its length.
5. Metal cutting and bending is the process of deforming or dividing a metal pipe, sheet or casting into its component parts.
6. Cutting of rolled or sheet material - punching, punching, cutting and trimming of metal material, performed in order to divide a complex metal structure into separate segments.

At the end of the procurement phase procedures, the transition to the second stage in the structure of mechanical engineering is carried out.

Processing step

The processing phase involves the process of turning various production blanks into finished parts. What processing methods determine the technological process of mechanical engineering in the second phase of production work? Consider them:

1. Metalworking is a set of mechanical processes of changing the shapes, sizes and quality of alloys and metals.
2. Heat treatment is the process of applying heat to a metal in order to give it the necessary properties (in particular, the appropriate size and shape).
3. Chemical treatment - the process of chemical action on the metal through the targeted destruction of alloys by etching in solutions of alkalis and acids.
4. Chemico-thermal treatment - the combined effect on the workpiece of the thermal and acid-base process, during which the surface of steel parts is saturated with carbon.
5. Plasma processing is a material processing procedure performed usinglow-temperature plasma generated by high-frequency or arc plasma torches in order to change the properties of this material.
6. Galvanization is the technology of coating one metal with another using an electrolytic compound.
7. Painting - grinding, polishing and coating the material with paints or varnishes in order to give it an aesthetically finished appearance.
8. Welding is the process of fastening parts in order to securely connect them in one single structure.
9. Passivation - treatment of the area after welding with a special substance, which is applied in a uniform layer to the surface of the material.

At the end of the deformation of materials, cutting and bending of metal, as well as after processing the products by one of the methods specially designed to obtain a specific result, the transition to the third phase of the technological process is carried out.

Assembly step

The last stage of the technological process of mechanical engineering provides for collective events and straightening of metal blanks. Docking of various metal profiles can be done in several ways:

1. Packing individual assembly units into a single whole final product.
2. Adjustment-delivery assembly.
3. Test connection of components into a single metal structure.

Problems of mechanical engineering in Russia

The overriding challenge remains the need for a major overhaul. The problem of lagging domesticproduction from the world-class economy is directly related to the low profitability of such branches of machine production as instrument making, machine tool building, computer technology, electronic and electrical industries. This issue needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

Depending on the nature and direction, the fundamental problems of mechanical engineering in domestic production can be grouped into separate blocks. This is:

1. Disadvantages in the development of the machine-building complex - the problem is due to the low growth rates of leading industries, a significant decline in production, disruption of technological ties, downtime of individual enterprises, low rates of equipment renewal in relation to the level of output.
2. Lack of resources for structural adjustment - insufficiently developed branching of the directions of activity of the domestic engineering industry requires re-profiling, and there are not enough funds for this. Moreover, the industry requires reducing disproportions in the growth rates of individual segments of reproduction: somewhere it is necessary to optimize the structure of operational technologies, somewhere to supplement the production process with the missing capacities.
3. Disadvantages in the quality of manufactured products - the non-compliance of the manufactured machines (their vast majority) with the machines of world standards, as well as the low reliability of the produced vehicles leads to the failure of their finished models already a year after active operation. The percentage of such production facilities is 20-30% in the total specific gravityproduced models.

Technological process automation

Automated control systems in the field of mechanical engineering are the primary source of increasing production capacity in the entire mechanical engineering segment. What does this mean?

Production automation is today the main direction in which the production of the whole world is moving. Everything that was previously carried out at the expense of a person’s ability to work, his physical strength and intellectual abilities, all this at the present time comes down to technology, which independently operates technological cycles and monitors their implementation. At the same time, the role of a person is reduced to a minimum - he only has to observe the correctness of the implementation by automated systems of all those actions that are aimed at optimizing domestic production. It's simple.

Automation of technological processes in mechanical engineering is carried out through a set of operations that involve starting, stopping, maintaining or changing the process of operational work at the facility as a whole. It really plays an important role in the development of the industry as a whole. The value of individual machines, devices, units, devices, machine complexes lies in a significant impact on the formulation of a fundamentally new work process at the machine-building plant as a whole. After all, controlled objects in automation are quite diverse and incredibly effective in their intended purpose.

Replacing human labor canbe carried out in terms of partial or absolute substitution. The process of mechanical engineering is carried out either completely due to the latest automation devices, or with partial replacement of human labor. Not all factories have the ability to replace human labor completely with automated ones. Someone does not have enough capacity for this, someone does not have the equipment, and someone does not have the skills to work with such an unusual, but at the same time extremely effective process control method.

Objects to be automated

But not only human hands today can be replaced by mechanized devices with high-precision equipment that can respond to the slightest remarks of the car operator. In addition to the fact that there is a direct replacement of a person at the machine with a specialized installation, in parallel, automation of the following aspects in the process of mechanical engineering is possible:

1. The production process - all the work that a person performs every day with a reflex repetition of actions worked out to the machine can be completely uninterruptedly replaced by a machine.
2. Design - as mentioned above, not only the results of human physical labor can be reviewed and adapted to their production needs. Intellectual work is also subject to automation. Moreover, some calculations and drawing up algorithms subject to electronic computing are the basis of correct computer-aided design.
3. Organization - some aspects of distributive functions for the specific execution of actions of an automated structure are only subject to external control. Everything else the technique does itself.
4. Planning - calculations and identification of upcoming tasks to be completed in the future are also assigned to "smart electronics".
5. Control - in order to manage the process of working with automated devices that assemble machines, it is enough just to carry out simple push-button manipulations while standing at the control panel.
6. Scientific research - all mathematical aspects and features of miscalculations of the productivity growth of a machine-building plant in dynamics are also subject to automated computing systems.
7. Business processes - if you wish, you can calculate the ratio of your profit and marginal income from running a machine-building business, because computerized equipment can do everything for a person.

Dignity

The goal of process automation is to increase labor productivity along with the overall improvement of product quality and the introduction of high-tech equipment. With its help, it becomes possible to optimize the management of machine-building production, to move a person from industrial zones hazardous to he alth. And also to increase the reliability and double the profitability of precision engineering. Because automation increases convertibility and reduces data processing time in planning.

1. What are the positive aspects of the automation of working moments in the machine-building complex? Consider them:
2. First, you can save employees working in particularly difficult physical conditions from monotonous and hard physical labor. A machine can do everything for a person.
3. Secondly, you can save employees from staying at the workplace in professionally dangerous conditions (under the hinged frame of a car, behind a metal-cutting mechanical machine, and others).
4. Thirdly, the prerogative to set before the automated system those tasks that, based on the physical capabilities of a person, would be beyond his power. We are talking about blocks of heavy weight, speed performance of the task, endurance and similar criteria.
5. Fourthly, the main feature of workflow automation is that it has a positive effect on the growth of economic indicators of both the enterprise and the industry as a whole.

Flaws

However, there are also negative aspects in the replacement of human labor with automated ones. Transport engineering, machine tool production or any other branch industrial enterprise faces the following negative nuances in the process of labor automation:

• job cuts;
• technical restrictions;
• existing security threats;
• unpredictability of implementation and development costs;
• high initial pricing.

Technological documentation

Any work based on the procurement, processing and assembly of parts in mechanical engineering must be accompanied by the preparation and execution of relevant papers. The form of cards and their composition in the general set of documents depends on the type of technological process (group, standard, single), type of production and degree of use of automated control systems at the enterprise. Based on these criteria and taking into account the degree of required data detail, the presentation and content of transactions in documents, as well as their completeness, can vary significantly.

Most often, the set of documents for the technological process includes a route map, an operating room, a sketch map, a tooling list, a list of technological documents and a list of materials.