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Technical insight: Innovative hole drilling tools increase automobile industry profitability

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automotive engineering drawings

By Paul Best and Todd Cox, product specialists at Allied Machine & Engineering Corp

Hole drilling plays a critical role in automotive manufacturing. Hundreds of holes must be drilled for each vehicle that’s manufactured, including those in transmission shafts, engine blocks, air bag propellant chambers, camshafts, and other internal engine parts.

In any automotive vehicle part production line, conveyor belts are running nonstop and efficient tools are a key aspect of profitability. Every minute a spindle is not drilling holes or is not efficiently evacuating the chips formed from drilling, is a minute when money is lost.

Manufacturers must take advantage of seemingly small tooling changes because they can make a huge difference in hole making efficiency. Innovative technology is now available that can be integrated right into a process seamlessly without shutting production down. Adopting these innovations that decrease costs can significantly increase margin dollars for the company.  [Read more…] about Technical insight: Innovative hole drilling tools increase automobile industry profitability

Audi shows off its smart factory technologies

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Audi has been demonstrating its advanced manufacturing technologies, much of which went into building its newly opened smart factory in Mexico, where the automaker’s Q5 vehicle is being produced.  [Read more…] about Audi shows off its smart factory technologies

OR Laser launches new metal additive manufacturing system

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OR Laser has launched a new direct metal additive manufacturing system which it says is “more accessible and more affordable for more companies”.

The company says the Orlas Creator metal additive manufacturing platform is “smarter, simpler, faster and more cost effective than any other metal additive manufacturing system currently available on the market”.

OR Laser says the system uses a “unique” circular build-platform design, which enables up to 30per cent faster production speeds compared with comparable platforms. These speeds are facilitated by a proprietary, rotation-led precision coater blade.  [Read more…] about OR Laser launches new metal additive manufacturing system

Deco Lighting increases production speed ‘by 1,200 per cent’ using Rethink’s Sawyer industrial robot

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deco-lighting

Smart lighting manufacturer claims collaborative robot makes assembly 1,200 percent faster

Deco Lighting, a lighting technology manufacturer, is planning to deploy Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer industrial robots to reduce production time with precision sub-assembly on each line.

By introducing Sawyer into this process, Deco Lighting hopes to reduce assembly time on its products from about an hour per unit to less than five minutes.

Based in Commerce, California, Deco Lighting marks a paradigm shift in the LED lighting industry through optimization in design and manufacturing.  [Read more…] about Deco Lighting increases production speed ‘by 1,200 per cent’ using Rethink’s Sawyer industrial robot

Daimler sets its sights on vision of smart factory

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At Daimler, the “smart factory” is the centrepiece of the digitalisation of the entire company. In the smart factory, the products, machines and the entire environment are networked with each other and connected to the internet. Integration of the real world into a functional, digital world enables a so-called “digital twin” to be created, which allows the real-time representation of processes, systems and entire production shops.

“Digitalisation enables us to make our products more individual, and production more efficient and flexible. The challenge is to plan for the long term while remaining able to respond rapidly to customer wishes and market fluctuations,” says Markus Schäfer, executive board member Mercedes-Benz cars production and supply chain management.

“The working environment in the automobile industry is facing major and very rapid changes,” says Michael Brecht, chairman of the Daimler works council. “We want to be actively involved in shaping these changes. One key to this is undoubtedly the systematic, far-sighted training of the current and future workforce.”  [Read more…] about Daimler sets its sights on vision of smart factory

The Toyota Corolla at 50: The best-selling car of all time

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The Toyota Corolla is by far the best-selling model of car ever made, with close to 50 million units sold since its launch in 1966. 

The company commemorated the 50th anniversary last month of “the car for everyone” by producing a video and other content looking back on its success in putting Toyota on the global automaking map.

One notable story told of how one owner has been driving his first-generation Corolla since he bought it in 1969 at the age of 24.  [Read more…] about The Toyota Corolla at 50: The best-selling car of all time

Rewriting the rules: The benefits and challenges of IT/OT convergence

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copa-data-zenon-csm_automated_engineering

Martyn Williams, managing director of Copa-Data UK, explains the changing responsibilities of IT and OT

The convergence of industrial automation and communication is an integral part of the growing Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In the modern industrial realm, automation should provide a consistent way of executing tasks and processes – including those usually associated with information technology (IT).

As a result, the operational technology (OT) used to support manufacturing processes is experiencing significant changes.

IT and OT convergence describes the integration of IT systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, with OT systems, such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA).

Traditionally, IT and OT have remained two separate silos, maintaining independent protocols, standards and governance models. However, for companies pursuing operational effectiveness, increased profits and growth, the convergence of these two systems is a no brainer.  [Read more…] about Rewriting the rules: The benefits and challenges of IT/OT convergence

Paul von der Bank invents ‘world’s smallest’ robotic arc welding cell using Kuka industrial robot

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Kuka has revealed what it claims is the world’s smallest robotic cell for arc welding, developed by a company called Paul von der Bank Schweisstechnik. 

The tiny cell – of about 1 cubic metre – is also said to have achieved a 50 per cent increase in productivity. It uses Kuka Agilus robots.

The cell, named the WTG 1200, is already being used by companies such as Brüninghaus & Drissner.  [Read more…] about Paul von der Bank invents ‘world’s smallest’ robotic arc welding cell using Kuka industrial robot

Manufacturing: Smarter than the average factory

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What’s all this talk about “smart factories”? It’s just a bunch of machines being connected to the internet, right? What’s the big deal? What’s the big idea?

True, it’s all about connectivity. But that is, in fact, a very big deal – lots of very big deals, lots of very small deals, just lots and lots of deals, which, when combined, is indeed a huge, historic shift in industrial production, encapsulated by some in terms such as “Industry 4.0” or “Industrial Internet”.

Having been articulated, arguably, by the Germans, talk about “the fourth industrial revolution” or “Industrie 4.0” has permeated virtually all conversations about the future of manufacturing.  [Read more…] about Manufacturing: Smarter than the average factory

Industrial internet: 42Q launches new protocol capability for factory automation

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42Q, a provider of cloud manufacturing execution systems (MES), has introduced Semiconductor Equipment Communications Standard, Generic Equipment Model (SECS/GEM) protocol capability.

SECS/GEM is an industry standard factory equipment interface protocol for equipment-to-host data communications.

In securing SECS/GEM capability, 42Q says it greatly simplifies the implementation of factory automation, machine to machine (M2M) communication, real time in process data collection and data analytics, all key elements of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Several factories using 42Q have already deployed this new protocol in their operations, sasy the company.  [Read more…] about Industrial internet: 42Q launches new protocol capability for factory automation