Development of the Full-Automated Mechanical Testing System for Steel Products

Mechanical testing in steel production plays an important role in both quality assurance through the materials inspection of various high grade steel products, and stabilizing or upgrading the steel quality through supplying the production analysis data. Authors have been engaged in developing the updated materials testing system for a more accurate and rapid testing process. However some problems still remain in the area of delivery time of test results and worker's job efficiency. In June 1988, we developed a new system for total factory automation of the full-automated materials testing at Fukuyama Works, NKK Corporation, including the automatic machining process of test specimens and a computer control system first of their kind anywhere in the world. This paper details the aims of the development and the new machining techniques.