Tie Rod Loading and Unloading Automation Dana-Mishawaka is a division of Dana Corporation that manufactures automotive brake and chassis products at a plant in Mishawaka, Indiana.
Tie rods are major components produced at the plant.
The tie rod production process uses two machines to perform various cutting operations on one end of the tie rods. For each machine, an operator manually loads the tie rods, activates the machine, and unloads the tie rods. Dana-Mishawaka would like to automate this machine tending process. The purpose for automating is to reduce physical strain to the operator and allow the operator to perform other tasks. The main components of the system are a robot with a custom designed gripper, two sets of input feeders, and one set of output chutes.