This thesis work came about as a small part of a larger project to automate the slate manu-facturing process at Dovreskifer AS in Dovre, Norway. The company had identified that a significant portion of their processed slate brick required additional refinement. This post-process leveling of the slate bricks is performed manually, as the company had not found an automatic solution that fit their specific requirements.

In collaboration with University West in Trollhättan, Sweden, the process of automating the facility was outlined and a component of that automation consisted of finding a solution to the slate leveling problem.

To approach this problem in a manner that fulfilled both the academic and business requirements specified by the stakeholders, a set of clear aims and delimitations was established. The aim of the thesis was to investigate if there were any suitable automatic solutions that could fulfil the requirements of leveling the slate, and if such solutions did not exist, to con-ceptualize how such a solution could be designed. To limit the scope of the thesis it was established that the process should focus on the most common dimensions of bricks and that no regard was to be given to any of the processes that occurred upstream or downstream of the process.

The engineering design process as defined by Robert Norton was used as a framework for this thesis work, wherein the process of conceptualizing a machine design was rigorously followed step-by-step. The process was iterative in nature and utilized morphological tables to try to find the optimal solution. Potential risks were identified and offset by using the failure modes and effects analysis methodology and emphasis was put on the ergonomics and robustness of the design.

The result of the process was a conceptualized design of a machine that would level the surface using a pair of vertical shears operated by hydraulics, based on a laser profile scan of the slate bricks. The slate would be transferred through the machine using a system of roller and belt conveyors.While further development of the design is warranted, the design presented in this thesis should work as a solid foundation on which to build upon. Research into automating and integrating the upstream and downstream activities should also be conducted.