&

Technical Contact @ Harding

Executive Summary:       
        The procedure used at Hardinge Inc. for testing the GT live tooling assembly is currently accomplished through rather inefficient means.  Simply put, this procedure entails cycling a system of four gears, which is driven by a single motor for an eight-hour period, thereby creating what is considered a quality mesh within the gear assembly.  The problem lies in the fact that throughout this lengthy period of time an operator must be present and solely devoted to monitoring this process.  This individual’s duties include physically logging the temperatures measured at various locations of the live tooling in five minute time increments.  This operation is not only inefficient, but labor intensive and costly as well.  However, this testing is necessary to insure quality within the product.  
        This being said, Automation Inc. is proposing the development of a test bench that will later be used to "interface" the live tooling assembly with a controller programmed with ladder logic that will automatically measure and record temperatures of the tooling, at different locations, as it cycles through the program.  The completed interface must be capable of automatically capturing the data and logging it into a database, which will allow it to be printed and referenced at any given time.