TECHNOLOGY REPORT | DIGITILISATION


STHE BIG


The world is connected. Digital system talks to digital system


universally. Algorithms interpret data and churn out decisions. At the boundary of the net of worldwide interconnectivity laptops, tablets and smartphones interact with real people, who it seems are now becoming rather an old-fashioned concept as far as doing things or deciding things are concerned. Julian Champkin investigates.


WITCH D


igitalisation is everywhere. It is of course in the lifting industry also. The current buzzword in automation is ‘Industry 4.0’, also


known as the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, with the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices. How far has it gone, how far is it going


and will there still be a role for people in this business? Well-placed to guide us is George Thompson, who as well as being sales manager, Robotic Systems for hoist-makers Güdel, based in the UK, is currently vice chairman of BARA, the British Automation and Robotics Association. Güdel manufacture industrial robots and gantry robots; the difference, he says, is that industrial robots are one- armed machines that stand on a pedestal and lift things, and gantry robots are conventional-style overhead monorails and trolleys but with added automation. Both lift and move things; both use similar technology. In fully-automatic mode, he says; “a signal from a sensor or a plc says to a control system that a part is ready for collection, and the robot just goes and carries it to where it needs to go. The operator, insofar as there is one, can be next door or halfway around the world. “And that is part of – but not all of - Industry 4.0.”


Q Automated handling of railway wheels by Güdel


www.hoistmagazine.com | August 2021 | 31


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