INDUSTRY News
Siemens Virtual Commissioning comes to Mechatronics students’ rescue
Siemens technology helped postgraduate MSc Mechatronic Systems Engineering students at Middlesex University complete a vital academic project after Covid-19 closed the campus and stopped them accessing any physical equipment in their labs.
At the time, the students’ only option was to design, develop and test a solution in the virtual world before deploying and commissioning it remotely. In this case, to go from physical to virtual commissioning of their assessment task to prototype a conveyor belt system that acts as a segue between a robot arm and a Festo CP Factory. To prepare students for a future where digital and advanced manufacturing technologies were combined, Siemens introduced its innovative Connected Curriculum initiative in 2019 in partnership with Festo, a company well-known for its automation and technical training. Connected Curriculum combines hardware and software with simulation environments, data, curriculum examples, case studies and real-life problem-solving tutorials. The initiative was created because the rapid pace of technology development means the only way academia can keep up is by partnering more closely with industry. “It was a challenging assignment, but one that these students will actually
Illustration of how the machines worked remotely
face in industry. In Siemens we see these challenges every day, and Connected Curriculum is our way of helping the next generation of graduates have a head start by working on real-world problems with real-world tools,” said Steve Jones, the lead for Connected Curriculum program at Siemens. Luke Bennett, Associate Lecturer in Design Engineering at Middlesex University, said: “This is the fi rst time we used a remote solution. The main advantage was its phenomenal connectivity. The system allowed connectivity to diff erent technologies – hardware and software. We can use these digital techniques again for giving access to a much larger number of students to be able to use a system like this, particularly Mindsphere. We can also use the technology as a vehicle to train undergraduates in terms of being able to model digital twins.”
According to Bennett, the main challenge was access to hardware, a key requirement for any student. But thanks to Connected Curriculum, access to the hardware was remote. The students chose to use Siemens NX Mechatonrics Concept Designer with TIA Portal and PLCSim advanced to produce a digital twin of their solution, which mirrored exactly the physical hardware in the inaccessible labs.
The students, who were initially concerned about their ability to complete their project, were impressed by the versatility of the solution.
“It was amazing that we got to be familiar with hardware and software using solutions from Siemens and Festo. We could build our confi dence in handling mechatronics-related prototyping and system integration involving diff erent systems packages,” said student, Chung Hing Woo.
Ford is the fi rst European car maker to use large-format 3D printing
The Spanish plant of the Ford Motor Company is the first car manufacturer in Europe to use Form 3L, a large- format 3D printer by Formlabs. Ford applied the technology to develop and make plastic caps used in vacuum tests for checking engine leakages. Ford Body and Assembly in Valencia uses Form 3L to prototype new tools and produce specific parts in shorter time and at a lower cost than with traditional manufacturing. “For us at Ford, it was the first time to use 3D printing for this purpose, but we are very happy with the result,” said Carlos Cambralla, Reliability
10 December/January 2021 | Automation
and Maintenance Engineer at Ford in Valencia. “The plastic caps that Ford developed are used in a vacuum test on a motor, therefore, they need to be flexible in order to seal tightly, but they must also be able to withstand the low pressure during testing.” Since Ford only needed around 1,000 of these plastic caps, 3D printing was their best choice.
“Sometimes we needed the caps the next day, so it was crucial to produce them as quickly as possible,” said Cambralla.
For a comparatively small batch of these items, it was also more cost-
effective to produce them on site. By moving the production of this part in house, Ford did not have to rely on external providers and was therefore able to maintain its assembly throughout. Ford uses stereolithography 3D printing to develop prototypes with a high surface quality. However, 3D printing proved especially valuable when it needed to produce a specific part for a tool to do quality checks on motors. The whole production cycle from design and prototyping to the final product was completed on site at the plant in Valencia.
automationmagazine.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46
