System and method for heating metal blanks

A method of adjusting positions of blanks entering a hot stamping furnace, the method comprising:

• measuring positions of a plurality of heated blanks exiting the hot stamping furnace with an electronic vision system;
• determining and recording one or more offset values from a nominal value for at least a portion of the plurality of heated blanks exiting the hot stamping furnace;
• and
• commanding a robot to adjust positions of a plurality of subsequent blanks entering the hot stamping furnace as a function of the one or more offset values.

A method of adjusting positions of blanks entering a hot stamping furnace, the method comprising:

• measuring positions of a plurality of heated blanks exiting the hot stamping furnace and determining one or more offset values from nominal values for at least a portion of the plurality of blanks;
• calculating at least one revised position of a plurality of subsequent blanks that will enter the hot stamping furnace as a function of the one or more offset values;
• and
• commanding a robot to place the plurality of subsequent blanks at the at least one revised position before entering the hot stamping furnace.