Forklift automation usually means automating the truck. Cascade has taken the concept upstream, commissioning a robotic production line to automate the manufacture of the forks themselves.
Cascade has brought a fully automated hot-forging line for forklift forks online at its UK plant in Openshaw, Manchester, replacing a manually operated bending process the company had outgrown. The line, designed, built and installed by Rhodes Interform, is now running in daily production.
It combines two hydraulic presses, robotic part handling, automatic tool transfer, and programmable controls that let operators switch between fork configurations without extensive retooling. A 100-tonne upset press compresses material axially; a 400-tonne bend-and-squeeze press then forms the finished profile. Robots move parts between the two, while HMI controls mounted outside the guarded cell give operators access to thousands of stored production recipes.
Fitting the New Automation Cell into Existing Floor Space
Fitting the cell into Cascade’s existing floor space was the main engineering challenge. Rhodes Interform had to work the line into a confined area of the plant while keeping enough clearance to move product safely between presses. The line was built and tested at Rhodes Interform’s Wakefield facility, including a Factory Acceptance Test attended by Cascade, before being dismantled, shipped to Manchester and recommissioned with Site Acceptance Testing and operator training. Rhodes Interform also carried out CE marking on the completed line.
For Cascade, the project was about more than replacing manual handling with automation.
“We set out to develop a new solution, as our bending process had become outdated,” Jed Shaw, fork operations manager for Cascade UK and Sweden, said in a statement carried by trade title Machinery Market. Shaw said the company wanted a turnkey system that delivered technical support and installation capability at a cost that fit its budget.
The bigger driver, he said, is competitive pressure. “UK manufacturing faces a challenging market, with growing competition from overseas manufacturers,” Shaw said. “In this environment, the ability to produce small-batch, high-variety products efficiently is critical.” The new process reduces tool changeovers while holding operating efficiency steady, letting Cascade support shorter runs and a wider product mix without the economics that once favored long, undifferentiated batches.
Peter Anderton, technical director for Group Rhodes, said in the same statement that the line delivers “accuracy, repeatability and programmable flexibility,” with process memory recall built in.
It’s a useful reminder for forklift buyers and component suppliers watching automation trends from the outside: the robots reshaping how lift trucks move material on a warehouse floor are increasingly the same technology reshaping how the trucks, and their components, get built in the first place.
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