CRG Automation
Canvas Category Machinery : Industrial Robot : General
Founded in 2000, CRG Automation specializes in the custom engineering of automated solutions for the packing, material handling and manufacturing industries. Located in Louisville, KY, we not only develop new systems but we also re-engineer existing ones to meet your changing needs. Our highly experienced team of engineers, fabricators, machinist and electrical controls specialists work closely together to fully execute design, fabrication, assembly and testing.
Assembly Line
Automated Disassembly of Deadly Weapons
In 2021, systems integrator CRG Automation successfully completed an unprecedented project to automate the process of disarming, disassembling and destroying 70,000 aging rockets filled with deadly nerve agents. The project was so successful that the Army came back to us with another task: Create an automated system to disassemble and destroy thousands of mortar rounds filled with highly toxic mustard agent. The rounds were stored at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) in Pueblo, CO, and would have to be destroyed by the end of 2023.
The system was designed virtually using computational fluid dynamics, quickly proving that the concept would work. This was essential given the finished technology involved five subsystems and more than 2,000 parts.
CRG sent a series of engineers to the Colorado plant prior to installation to train the employees who had been unable to visit during the development. “They lived in our plant,” says Jackson, who had anticipated the installation process would take 60 days. Instead, because of the constant collaboration and the team’s approach, it took just 21. That’s faster than the industry standard of 42 days for just a simple conversion of existing equipment. “We’re talking about brand new systems here,” Ankrom says.
Kawasaki Robotics partners with Olis Robotics to offer remote monitoring and control of its industrial robots
Olis Robotics, a leader in the remote error recovery for industrial robots, announces a new partnership with Kawasaki Robotics Inc., a leading supplier of industrial robots and automation systems, to offer their customers the ability to restart production faster, reduce troubleshooting and downtime costs by up to 90%, and gain access to expert support quickly.
At Kawasaki’s booth #C5475 at MODEX 2024 in Atlanta, GA, March 11 - 14, Kawasaki and Olis Robotics will showcase their partnership by joining forces with CRG Automation, a Louisville, KY-based integration house. The partners will demonstrate a state-of-the-art robotic corner board system, integrated with a mixed palletizing and depalletizing cell, featuring a Kawasaki RS007L robot, that automates placing corner boards on pallets being wrapped, ensuring overall load stability.
CRG Automation | Dual Robot, Dual Process Welding Cell
Rocket Warhead Demating Machine (RWDM) | FAT
Robots Automate Disassembly of Chemical Weapons
Disarming and disassembling the rockets is not easy, and the task is made even more difficult because of the rocket’s design. The rocket propellant cannot be removed from the warhead without cutting open the rocket, and the propellant itself presents a hazard, because it becomes unstable as it ages. Another danger is leakage of the toxic nerve agents. As sarin decomposes, it forms acids that can corrode the aluminum casing inside the rocket.
Both Ankrom and Staggs have seen first-hand how advancements in chemical weapons destruction now require fewer and fewer people. Ankrom started working with chemical agents in the mid-1980s, recalling how his first project, which focused on a hallucinogenic, was entirely manual and required 15 people. Even as recently as 2014, workers at the Blue Grass depot had to manually separate the warheads from the rocket motors and then separate the fuses from the warheads to support testing at the Anniston Static Detonation Chamber disposal plant, adds Staggs, who has worked with chemical weapons since 1978. “Adding the automation with robots has assisted us with reducing people interaction with these aging chemical weapons,” Staggs says. But the Blue Grass depot’s original disposal system plans, even with its robots, presented problems when workers discovered leaking rockets.
The agency reached out to CRG Automation, an engineering firm best known for building packaging lines for the likes of Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and Kraft. CRG Automation has been designing and building packaging and processing equipment for the food, beverage and consumer products industries for more than 20 years. CRG Automation developed an alternative method by holding the assembly fixed and making the cut with the rocket in a vertical orientation, ensuring that any leaking chemical agent would simply gather in the bottom of a containment device. Cutting the rockets in an upright orientation also meant that the operation could be done more precisely. The cut can be located with an accuracy of 0.001 inch, Ankrom says. Six-axis robots are used to load and unload the cutting machines.