Customer demands are constantly growing thanks to the Internet and mass marketing, placing increased pressure on manufacturers. They must deliver quality products quickly at a competitive price. Thus, digitization and automated production are crucial for companies these days – there is no future for those who miss this trend.
Sustainability is another frequently used term. More and more industrial companies are falling in line with the green wave – being “green” is in nowadays. Customers, employees and the public prefer companies that are environmentally aware. However, does sustainability play a role in the automation and digitization of production processes?
Digital or sustainable?
There is still a perception that many manufacturing processes can be either just digital or sustainable. Yet, there are also those who have introduced digitization into their production and have demonstrably found that digitization and automation can improve sustainability. Why? Because intelligent technologies greatly improve production processes.
The machines in the shop floor communicate with each other. Sci-fi? Reality!
So how does such an intelligent production process work? Imagine that your production process is in full swing. Three CNC machines produce a series of turned parts, where the operator checks the dimensions manually. The queues in the metrological laboratory and the downtime will come as no surprise.
We are now implementing an intelligent automatic measuring machine with a tool loop function in your production. The machine is installed in the middle of the production area and operates your three CNC machines and production is at full speed. The tool loop function allows the machine to exchange data with all CNC machines during production. Basically, each time a sample is measured, the optical measuring machine communicates with the lathe and provides data feedback.
This process leads to automatically correcting tool parameters, eliminating man-made write errors and speeding up tool offset operations.
Production sustainability is so important! Material waste is eliminated to a minimum and the production phases are optimized with the time and energy demands of the whole process being reduced. Thanks to intelligent technologies, production goals can be achieved even when high sustainability standards are maintained.