TRENDS IN TECHNOLOGY
Sense and Sensibilities: The Evolution of Automation
Security, safety, mobility and even a measure of autonomy are just some of the areas in which automation is moving forward
Ilene Wolff Contributing Editor T
Liebherr’s new robots can detect metallic, nonmetallic and organic objects, making them versatile and suitable for any industry or machine shop.
he latest trends in automation are wide-ranging. They include the integration of the cloud, Big Data and the Internet of Things; protecting the software that runs a plant from hackers; manufacturing execution system (MES) apps that can be deployed a la carte; collaborative cobots that can safely do the heavy lifting side-by-side with humans; and robots that can do more than ever before—both on the produc- tion line and well away from it. “One of the areas that we see exploding is automating
post-processing operations,” said John Lucier, national automation manager for Methods Machine Tools (Sud- bury, MA). And that is often all about mobility. Lucier said the same robot that unloads a machin- ing center could, where possible, also transfer parts to a cleaning and degreasing, deburring, polishing, metrology or marking station.
“The part could be placed by the robot in a gaging
fixture for checking one or two important dimensions,” Lucier said. “Or even a coordinate measuring machine or complex vision system or laser micrometer.” By making the marking station the next stop for a part
after the robot removes it from the machining center, “I don’t have the option to mismark the part,” Lucier said. Add a requirement for the robot to check in and out of each operation, and you’ve just made your traceability function that much more robust.
March 2017 |
AdvancedManufacturing.org 43
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