Development and initial testing of robotic blacksmithing apparatus

Abstract

Manufacturing-based robotic platforms with various end effectors to replicate different processes can provide cheaper and space efficient point-of-need capabilities. One such process of interest is robotic blacksmithing that can, e.g., provide a means to post-process composite materials with voids and material imperfections that are fabricated through additive manufacturing. In this paper, a robotic forging end effector is developed and used to cold forge, actually coin, an AA6061-T6 block. Analyses of deformation, both experimental and numerical simulations, allows for the changes to the material, hardness, penetration of the strain hardening, and surface properties to be measured. Penetration data provides insight into the thickness and number of material layers that can be deposited in an additive manufacturing process prior to such a post-processing step to affect the material and layer interface characteristics. Analysis of surface properties reveal the physical changes to the metal that affect its material characteristics.