Forged Path Automation | We are process engineers, not just robot integrators — Landrum, SC
Forged Path Automation designs, builds, and supports turnkey robotic finishing and cleaning cells from Landrum, South Carolina, for manufacturers in the gas turbine, aerospace, and automotive industries.
The Federal Reserve put its industrial production index for motor vehicles and parts at 101.1 in December 2025. By May and June of 2026 the index read 111.8. It then fell to 110.8 in July and 109.5 in August.
That is roughly ten index points of movement in both directions inside nine months, with a reversal partway through. The same release, dated September 18, 2026, put manufacturing capacity utilization at 75.7 percent — 2.5 percentage points below its 1972 to 2025 average.
Two numbers, and between them sits the problem every plant manager running cast parts already knows. Automotive casting deburring is labor that has to be staffed before anyone knows what volume it will run.
What is automotive casting deburring?
Automotive casting deburring removes the flash, parting-line witness, and gate remnants left on a cast part before it moves to machining, coating, or assembly. On automotive work that covers housings, chassis components, structural parts, and sub-assemblies, where edge condition affects downstream fit, sealing surfaces, and coating adhesion.
The bench is harder to staff than the forecast suggests
Hand deburring runs on powered grinders, and the occupational record on that work is long.
In Current Intelligence Bulletin 38, published in March 1983, NIOSH reported on 385 workers exposed to pneumatic chipping hammers and grinders across two foundries and a shipyard. Among the foundry workers, 47 percent showed advanced vibration syndrome at stage 1 or worse. None of the control workers did.
The bulletin is four decades old and the physics have not moved. Vibration syndrome accumulates with prolonged regular use of vibrating tools, and severity tracks how long the exposure runs. NIOSH recommended redesigning jobs to reduce time on vibrating tools, breaks after each hour of continuous exposure, and keeping hands warm and dry.
A plant reading that record is looking at a job that is physically demanding to hold a person in, on top of a volume forecast that moved ten points last year.
Castings do not arrive the way the drawing describes them
The technical obstacle is older than the staffing one.
Flash varies with die wear and shot conditions. Parting lines shift. Gate remnants differ in size depending on where the part sat in the mold. Two castings out of the same cavity on the same shift can need different amounts of material taken off in different places.
A hand operator absorbs that without thinking about it. They look at the part, find the burr, and work it until the edge feels right. None of that judgment is written down anywhere, which is what makes the job hard to hand to a machine and hard to hand to a new hire.
What a cell has to absorb
A cell built for this has to find the burr rather than assume it. That means the part gets located before it gets touched, and the tool carries enough compliance to follow a surface that sits somewhere other than nominal.
Fixturing does more work here than people expect. A fixture that seats a casting the same way every load narrows how much the cell has to sense. A fixture that lets the part rock widens it, and the cell spends its effort compensating for something the tooling should have settled.
The decision that comes first is not which robot. It is whether the operation is better served by a cell dedicated to one part family or one built to carry several, which is a trade-off worth taking on its own terms. Substrate matters too, since aluminum behaves differently under an abrasive than iron does.
Capacity planning against a number that will not hold still
A dedicated line sized to last year’s peak is idle capital when the index drops three points. A manual bench sized to the trough is overtime and a hiring problem when it climbs.
Neither of those is an argument for automating everything. It is an argument for knowing which parts of the operation have to flex and which do not, before any equipment gets specified. That question is answerable on a plant floor in a few days, and it is where automotive casting deburring projects either get their footing or lose it.
Forged Path Automation: Robotic Finishing and Deburring Cells in Landrum, SC
Forged Path Automation was founded by process engineers who kept seeing the same problem: automation providers selling equipment without owning the process. We handle system design, tooling, build, programming, installation, training, and support under one contract.
Our Services Include:
- Automotive Automation Solutions — Robotic finishing, deburring, and cleaning cells for castings, housings, and structural components
- Robotic Finishing Automation — Polishing, buffing, deburring, and sanding cells built for variable parts
Have a finishing operation that’s hard to staff? Talk to a process engineer about the part, the volume, and the finish you need.
About the Author
Chris Urban is the Founder of Forged Path Automation. His 26+ year manufacturing career spans from an international manufacturing specialist trained in Zurich, Switzerland, to corporate President and business owner. Before launching Forged Path Automation (FPA), Chris scaled an industrial gas turbine business unit from its infancy to $50M in value, directed the zero-downtime relocation of 100+ industrial machines to a 150,000 sq. ft. Center of Excellence, and led US operations for a $2.3B global firm. Today, Chris leverages his deep technical roots and an MBA to engineer turnkey robotic finishing cells that deliver total production stability and clear ROI for high-mix manufacturers. Chris holds an advanced background in both the technical and financial sides of manufacturing, combining studies in Applied Science with a Master of Business Administration.
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn to talk shop or discuss your floor’s ROI.
Follow Forged Path Automation on LinkedIn or visit ForgedPathAutomation.com.
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Works Cited
“Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization — G.17.” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 18 Sept. 2026, www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/20260918/table5.htm.
“Vibration Syndrome.” National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Current Intelligence Bulletin 38, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 83-110, Mar. 1983, www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/83-110.
This article is general industry information and is not a substitute for OSHA guidance, robot safety standards, or a qualified engineer’s assessment of your specific application.