MANUFACTURING OF PLASMA CUTTING EQUIPMENT “HIGHLY INFLUENCED” BY MECHANISED MOVE
Industrial cutting processes have played a significant part in the overall manufacturing of products. From metal foundries to automobile manufacturing, the effectiveness of cutting technologies has been employed across multiple industrial verticals. Among which, plasma cutting methods have gained lucrative grounds in the global industrial landscape.
The advantage of using plasma cutting equipment in delivering high-quality cuts at less preparation time has driven their demand as an indispensable industrial equipment. The adoption of plasma cutting equipment has gained traction for their consistency in delivering clean cuts with negligible dross, and across a wide range of operating temperatures. However, complex operability of plasma cutting equipment is a key challenge inhibiting its adoption. Lack of skilled professionals, high maintenance costs and limited application scope are observed as key deterrents for the adoption of plasma cutting equipment.
During this forecast period, the global plasma cutting equipment market is assessed to expand at a moderate pace, reflecting a value CAGR of 4%. In the report, it has been estimated that the global sales of plasma cutting equipment will bring in revenues worth nearly US$ 795 Mn.
In the due course of the forecast period, the report has assessed that the global plasma cutting equipment market will witness a growing adoption of mechanized equipment. In 2017, over US$ 280 Mn worth of manual plasma cutting equipment were sold worldwide. However, their adoption is set to dwindle in the latter half of the forecast period. By the end of 2026, global sales of plasma cutting equipment will translate into revenues worth over US$ 445 Mn, registering a steady value CAGR over the forecast period. Operational advantages of mechanised plasma cutting equipment will continue to drive their demand in the upcoming years.
Heavy equipment fabrication applications of plasma cutting equipment to remain highly profitable.
Through 2026, majority of plasma cutting equipment manufacturers will be developing equipment that can serve a suite of cutting applications. Heavy equipment fabrication applications of plasma cutting equipment are expected to account for the largest cut of overall revenue pie. By the end of 2026, plasma cutting equipment worth over US$ 170 Mn will be used in fabrication of heavy equipment across the globe. The report also reveals that the demand for plasma cutting equipment in shipbuilding & off-shore industry will gain traction. Over the forecast period, the shipbuilding & off-shore applications of plasma cutting equipment are expected to reflect fastest revenue growth at a CAGR of 5.1%.
Key Stakeholders in Global Plasma Cutting Equipment Market
Leading manufacturers of plasma cutting equipment have been identified and profiled in this report, Companies namely, Colfax Corporation, Ador Elding Ltd., Flow International Corporation, Matheson tri-gas Inc., Lincoln Electric Company, Illinois Tool Works Inc., Barton International Inc., Linde group, GCE holding AB, and Fronius international GMBH have been recognized as key players in the global plasma cutting equipment market. In the years to follow, several manufacturers of plasma cutting equipment will be introducing high-speed cutting equipment. Moreover, new technologies will be incorporated by market players to extend their capabilities in procuring plasma materials, which will enable their products to facilitate excellent cut quality.
These insights are based on a report on Plasma Cutting Equipment Market by Persistence Market Research.
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YOUNG WOMEN ENCOURAGED TO ENGINEER A CAREER
Being a young woman in a male-dominated field hasn’t stopped Bella Franks carving out a successful international career as an engineer.
Recently she spoke about her experiences to a group of female students keen to follow in her footsteps.
Bella was one of four guest speakers at the Women in Engineering Canterbury (WiE Can) event hosted by the University of Canterbury (UC).
WiE Can gives 60 female Year 13 students from high schools across New Zealand the opportunity to find out more about engineering by attending a series of hands-on workshops over five days, culminating in today’s session hearing from high-profile female engineers.
Bella, who graduated from UC in 2010 with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honours and is now working for Aecom as Associate Director of Buildings and Places, says engineering offers a varied and exciting career path.
She advises young women considering the profession to “go for it”. “It’s such a rewarding career. So many of the world’s most pressing issues need smart young women to solve them and drive human innovation forward.
“It’s rare in today’s work environment to have such a tangible outcome to your efforts, such as a beautiful building or public space, so it’s very satisfying to be able to see the results of your work.”
Bella spent four years living in New York working on one of the United States’ largest private real estate developments, the Hudson Yards project in Manhattan, and she is currently working on the City Rail Link in Auckland.
The 30-year-old says there is a certain amount of “proving yourself” as a young, female engineer, particularly in the construction world. “People can be very quick to write you off as inexperienced or out of your depth and it takes time to earn respect. Young males face this challenge too but often to a lesser extent.”
Other WiE Can speakers were Transpower Chief Executive Alison Andrew, water resources engineer India Eiloart, and Larissa Wilson, a UC mechanical engineering student who recently spent two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, the United States.
UC College of Engineering Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Jan Evans-Freeman says the WiE Can initiative is part of the university’s commitment to boosting the number of female engineering graduates and increasing diversity in the profession.
“Often young women have skills and interests that are very relevant to engineering but it might not be on their radar as a career option or they’re not sure how viable it is. The aim of this event is to let them know they are wanted and there are amazing possibilities in this field.
“We’ve invited these four speakers because they’re all brilliant role models and show the diverse career paths and opportunities available to females who choose engineering.”
Anna Manning, 18, from Whakatane, attended WiE Can last year and says it played a major role in her decision to enrol in Forest Engineering at UC in 2020.
“Engineering was one of my ideas but I never really knew exactly what it involved, and I didn’t know there were so many different types of engineering, and different career pathways you can follow.
“I’m quite focused on the outdoors, the environment and sustainability, so Forest Engineering really appeals to me and I hadn’t even known about it until WiE Can.
“The workshops gave me a clearer idea of what I would be doing on a day to day basis in an engineering career which was really cool.”
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KIWI TECH ON THE WORLD STAGE
Callaghan Innovation’s agritech group manager, Simon Yarrow
New Zealand innovators and leaders showcased their technologies on the world stage at a high-profile international event recently in Melbourne.
Over 60 Kiwi companies attended evokeAG to create export and partnership opportunities and build on New Zealand’s reputation as a leading agricultural innovator.
The event focussed on innovation in agriculture, drawing delegates from the entire agriculture ecosystem from across the Asia Pacific region and internationally.
The trip was led by Callaghan Innovation in partnership with NZTE, Agritech New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The New Zealand startup sector for agritech and new food has been ranked in the top 10 in the world and has the potential to become a multi-billion-dollar sector by 2025 says Simon Yarrow, Callaghan Innovation’s Agritech group manager.
“We’ve got a strong mix of Kiwi startups, larger firms, research institutes, investors, commercialisation experts, and ecosystem connectors joining our mission this year,” says Yarrow.
“That’s a reflection of New Zealand’s agritech ecosystem being more advanced than most, though still young.
“We’re seeing real potential for global success in robotics and automation, cloud-based platforms to manage day-to-day tasks, environmentally friendly pesticides and fertilisers, and visual artificial intelligence for animal health.
“But what we don’t have is access to the same level of investment and global channels to market. It’s why our innovators need to go the extra mile to build these global partnerships.”
The group of innovators and leaders met with investors, visited research institutes and farms in the Mildura region while confirming their products and strategies in the Australian market.
Trade commissioner Vanessa O’Neill says New Zealanders have always had the ability to turn local agritech solutions into global success stories.
“That means accelerating the growth of agritech innovations from Kiwi start-ups into scalable, investable and global companies.
“Global partnerships are second nature in New Zealand business. As Australia is New Zealand’s largest two-way trading partner it makes sense to look for opportunities to work together and take our agritech advantages to the rest of the world. Proven agritech innovations from New Zealand, boosted by Australian resources and networks, are a winning combination in global markets.” says O’Neill.
New Zealand speakers included Mitali Purohit from Callaghan Innovation, David Downs from NZTE, Darryn Keiller from Autogrow, Steve Saunders from Robotics Plus and Dean Tilyard from The Factory.
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Classic racing meeting celebrates local legend
Petrol heads will rejoice at the George Begg Classic Speedfest this weekend – celebrating the late engineer and local motor racing legend himself.
With a grid full of the F5000 cars, the new-look annual classic racing meeting has attracted bumper entries across all classes, from all over New Zealand to Invercargill’s Teretonga Park.
Begg built several F5000 cars, including the FM2 then FM4, FM5 and 018. The 018, as originally raced by Jim Murdoch, and ex David Oxton and Allan McCully FM5s, are on display at the new George Begg Bunker in the Motorcycle Mecca building in Invercargill’s Tay Street.
Current owners, Terry and Tim Rush, are also bringing the Begg FM4, originally raced by Geoff Mardon then David Oxton, with them to display at Teretonga Park over the weekend.
Before New Zealand and Australia adopted the stock-block 302 cu in ‘wings-and-slicks’ formula that became known here as Formula 5000, and Formula A in the United States, the 2.5 litre ‘Tasman’ formula meant that if drivers wanted to compete they had to buy an existing ex-works car.
The move to a stock-block engine formula opened the series up to an all-new group of talented all-round designer/builder/drivers like Graham McRae and Australia’s Frank Matich, and designer/builder/entrants like George Begg, and Garrie Cooper in Adelaide.
Set to contest the fourth round of this season’s SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at the meeting are 16 restored and race-prepared Formula 5000 racing cars, including the Leda LT27s designed by Wellington-born Graham McRae and now owned by Queenstown man Alistair Hey and his partner Vicki.
Driving the blue-and-yellow-striped white 004 car (#94) is runaway series points leader, Michael Collins from Christchurch, while behind the wheel of the STP-liveried Leda LT27 001 (#22) is Southland’s own LeRoy Stevenson.
Two later models but visually identical McRae GM1s belonging to three-time former series champ Steve Ross (#5) from Dunedin and series regular Aaron Burson from Auckland will also be on the grid this weekend.
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UC students engineer medical solutions in Tonga
For 10 weeks this summer, seven University of Canterbury (UC) students are going to be repairing life-saving medical equipment and engineering biomedical solutions in Tongan hospitals.
Sponsored by Callaghan Innovation summer research grants, the seven UC Biomedical Engineering students are learning how to repair medical devices on campus in Christchurch, before they left for Tonga.
UC Senior Lecturer in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Dr Debbie Munro is leading the initiative. Earlier this year, UC launched an annual biomedical engineering work experience in the Pacific Islands where students can combine their engineering skills with hands-on training for repairing critically needed hospital equipment.
“We’ve selected our interns and are in the midst of preparing them to leave for Tonga. We will be repairing hospital equipment for ten weeks while also developing the framework for a training programme for local people to continue the repair and maintenance work in Tonga,” Dr Munro says.
Dr Munro is the supervisor for the first five weeks and UC Electronics Technician Julian Phillips, who received a staff development award to attend, will take over supervision for the second half of the internship in January.
“I am super excited to be partnering with Callaghan Innovation, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and Take My Hands to send these students to Tonga for a global work experience where they can apply their biomedical engineering skills towards improving healthcare in developing countries,” Dr Munro says.
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X-Frame for waste free buildings gets commercialisation boost
Clip-together modular building design can be rapidly assembled, disassembled and reused, eliminating waste during a building’s lifecycle and heads us towards a circular economy
Victoria University of Wellington PhD candidate Ged Finch is fast tracking the commercialisation of his X-Frame structural frame solution for waste free buildings with support from the KiwiNet Emerging Innovator Programme. The game-changing framing system can be disassembled and re-used at the end of a building’s useful life.
Finch’s design, a self-braced interlocking wood design which clips together eliminating the need for single-use fixings, has the potential to eliminate waste and reduce the amount of raw materials being used by the building industry. Approximately half of all New Zealand’s waste—about 1.6 million tonnes every year—is generated by the construction sector.
“The current widespread use of adhesive-based fixings and single-life materials means that building a single new home will create about four tonnes of waste during construction, and even more when it’s eventually demolished and taken to the landfill,” says Finch.
Finch, who has been working with Viclink, Victoria University of Wellington’s commercialisation office, also secured a place on KiwiNet’s Emerging Innovator programme to help commercialise the green architectural solution.
Every single component of Finch’s X-Frame design, cut by a computer-controlled router, can be disassembled and reused, so no waste is produced at any stage of a building’s lifecycle. The clip-together design allows any type of structure—floors, walls, ceilings—to be rapidly assembled and disassembled many times over, using unskilled labour and a bare minimum of tools, akin to flat-pack furniture. Adding doors or windows at a later stage is simple, and when kids leave home: “they could literally take their rooms with them, as our modular design also clips onto standard framing.”
Dr James Hutchinson, ceo of KiwiNet, says: “Ged’s vision is to transition the building sector from a linear (take, make, dispose) economy to a circular economy—where materials are reused in endless cycles. His approach could set a new benchmark for sustainable design, and it makes great commercial sense. KiwiNet’s Investment Committee saw an opportunity to support Ged with expertise, networks and funding to do specialised work required to demonstrate his ideas at scale, and to assist with the commercialisation pathway from concept to new architectural solution.”
Finch came up with his idea during his Masters year and, under the guidance of Guy Marriage—Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture—has taken it into his PhD (with additional supervision from Dr Antony Pelosi and Dr Morten Gjerde).
Viclink has been an amazing support,” says Finch. “During my Masters, Liam Sutton—one of Viclink’s commercialisation managers—brought in an IP specialist to talk to me about how to protect my intellectual property and also connected me to a circular economy start-up funder.”
Finch says Viclink introducing him to KiwiNet has had one of the biggest impacts to date as it has given him access to a great network of expertise and experience, his own business mentor and funding to further develop his product.
“I’m using the funding to carry out specialised work required to finalise engineering designs for the earthquake resistant hold down fixings for the walls and interior,” says Finch. “KiwiNet’s support is also helping me to test the structural integrity and weather-tightness of the X-frame product, both critical features for any future commercialised product. They’ve also arranged for me to meet with scientists from Scion who are developing natural adhesives from forest waste products and Auckland based company Fastmount which manufactures reusable clips that connect interior wall linings with the structure. These materials perfectly complement the X-Frame technology—the networking is the magic!”
He says that even though X-Frame is innately earthquake stable because of its design geometry, independent structural testing is crucial in getting his product to market. His PhD scholarship funded by the Building Research Levy (BRANZ) is also assisting with the project, with additional funding also provided for structural testing of the prototype product.
Finch is currently building a small (10m2) prefabricated prototype dwelling in Auckland to demonstrate his ideas at scale and to inform market viability. He believes the completed prototype will be New Zealand’s most sophisticated ‘circular’ building.
Finch says, “This prototype build is a major step as it is the first time we will have built the entire wall system with cladding, cavity battens, insulation and an internal lining. Unitec Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture have helped out by providing robotic fabrication facilities to create the frame – which means we’ll be able to have the entire building water-tight in less than one week on-site. We’re cladding the assembled X-Frame in an entirely reusable, chemical free external cladding system centered around a naturally preserved timber product being developed by Abodo Wood Ltd.”
Finch was recently invited to present his concept at the Advanced Building Skins (ABS) conference in Bern, Switzerland. He says this was recognition from the international building industry that major changes are needed to curb waste production.
Finch says X-Frame could totally transform the way we think about buildings. “My ‘blue-sky’ objective is to build a housing development with a complete circular economy design—where all building materials can be quickly recovered at the end of a structure’s life and either efficiently recycled or directly reused without any negative environmental impacts.”
The KiwiNet Emerging Innovator Programme is open to early career researchers based at universities, Crown Research Institutes and other publicly funded research organisations across New Zealand. Programme recipients receive expert legal advice from KiwiNet corporate partner MinterEllisonRuddWatts and IP advice from Baldwins, as well as funding from the Norman Barry Foundation, owner of the Quality Hotel Parnell Limited, K1W1 and PreSeed Accelerator Funding, from MBIE.
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Sheet metal fabrication that packs plenty of punch
Punch Tooling NZ is what the company describes as your partner in the field for all aspects of sheet metal fabrication, fitting your exact requirements to high-quality precision tooling.
Representing “only the world’s leading and most reliable brands”, Punch Tooling NZ brings its considerable knowledge of manufacturing processes to ensure the implementation of the right plant and materials, fully installed and calibrated with ongoing technical service and support.
“Our team of service engineers can support what we sell. Due to inquiries from customer, we have partnered with Mebius Australia to sell the Penta Fiber laser range. This includes large format laser up to 8 meters in length and 20kw power,” says the company.
Penta also have developed the hand-held laser welder. Punch Tooling says that hese machines will be available in 2020 and represent a leap forward in welding with little or no clean-up and very fast welding speed.
“We also have the DeraTech range of Press brakes, these machines are quality press brakes with press frame monitoring to compensate for frame stretch as the tonnage increases.”
This combined with automatic crowning and an easy to operate CNC controller can now give the same bending accuracy as higher priced machines at a fraction of the cost.
“Penta lasers combined with the DeraTech range of press brakes give our customer a quality range of machinery at competitive prices. With 40 years’ experience in the field, Punch Tooling knows your industry and will help you improve processes and overcome any problem.”
Punch Tooling represents Wilson Tools, ToolsPress, Haeger, Pem Fastners, Coastone, Penta Laser and DeraTech.
“We can supply the right machinery at the right price. Give us a call.”
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JOB SCHEDULING
BUSINESS CONSULTANTS ADVISE ENGINEERS ON CRITICAL COMPONENTS TO JOB SCHEDULING
Working smarter; that’s what it’s all about. NZ Engineer News has approached three of the most experienced business consultants working in the New Zealand engineering space to advise us on job scheduling for engineers. Here’s what they had to say:
IAN FEATHERSTONE, OWNER OF GLASS HALF FULL
I advise on the importance of accurate scheduling, using software. Most of the businesses in the engineering sector are adding value with time and materials. The service and profit risks from estimating and managing materials is reasonably straight forward, especially for those with an engineering mind.
Managing time and tasks is another matter altogether. We can all calculate or estimate the expected time a task or a group of tasks should take for a particular job, however it gets more complicated when the business grows to a size were multiple jobs are happening at the same time, with shared resources and limited available working hours. Add to this the constantly shifting timelines, job variations, non-workdays and inevitable rush jobs, the task of organising and matching the right people to the right job, with minimum downtime can, become overwhelming and time consuming.
I have found that people with a logical or engineering mindset can quickly understand and implement scheduling software to help them plan and manage people, tasks, capacity and most importantly make promises to customers that they can keep and minimise downtime so the business can maximise the amount of “billable hours” it can charge out to increase the bottom line.
If you are considering scheduling or time management software, then I recommend you look for a system that has a demonstrated track record of working effectively for the engineering sector where 100% of the clients using the software are engineers and other custom manufacturers, where by default the software has all the necessary functionality to cope with all the complexities that occur on factory floors. The latest scheduling softwares use tablets on the factory floor, where factory staff start and finish their jobs on their tablets which enables automatic updating of job status and live and accurate scheduling. The software needs to be easy to use, provide clear, simple information and reports to your people, is accessible from anywhere and capture budget to actual time data that can be used for payroll and job costing, thus giving you feedback to improve your processes. Some provide excellent reports from which you can give your team feedback to help them keep improving.
DAVID LAWRENCE, OWNER OF LEAN MANUFACTURING
I consult to over 140 engineers and other jobbing manufacturers throughout New Zealand and Australia on scheduling, shop floor productivity and lean manufacturing. I can say that the substantial majority of engineers still schedule manually using spreadsheets and do not schedule well at all.
My short hand advice to owners, production managers and management teams of engineering firms that I consult to is six fold;
1 Stop using spreadsheets to schedule work. Spreadsheets are very time consuming, job status must be assessed and recorded manually then entered by staff or management manually, and in most case sequencing of tasks and capacity of tasks is not considered so the forward work schedule is not accurate
2 Invest in tablets for your factory floor and labour management and scheduling software to track daily and weekly downtime and manufacturing time
3 Use only scheduling software that where jobs and tasks are updated live from factory floor tablets and where individual staff register task started and task finished in real time
4 Use only scheduling software developed solely for engineering and other custom one off manufacturing businesses
5 Four minimum requirements of scheduling software; task/process capacity reporting, Job list viewable on calender, drag and drop of Tasks and Jobs on the calender and Gantt charts
6 Factory floor Job and Task status is ideally viewed live on 50 inch TV monitors on the factory walls and office walls for all factory staff, administration staff and management to see continuously throughout the day
I use ‘Empower Factory Productivity and Scheduling Software’ developed here in Auckland, NZ
WARWICK RUSSELL, OWNER OF SMETRIC INSIGHTS
Smetric Insights helps make driving business performance easy. Our focus is on developing software and interfaces that enable custom reporting for Engineers, custom product Manufacturers and other businesses. We provide owners and management teams with tailored, high-quality reporting which includes accurate figures that provide greater visibility of work in progress, job and task requirements, scheduling, true manufacturing time and true labour costs.
I have also owned two engineering businesses with over 100 staff. So, I know and fully appreciate all of the challenges around scheduling to meet changes in customer demands with quantities, timing and variations. Then there are all the challenges to manage breakdowns, unexpected downtime and jobs taking longer than expected.
Historically, in an attempt to try and schedule jobs, the Engineers used manual job cards on planning boards and Excel spread sheets. These were all a bit of a nightmare with different versions of the truth, no good visibility across the shop on where things were at and the challenges of rescheduling the jobs manually on the board.
To work out job times and job costs, at the end of the working day, the Engineers used to have factory staff fill in manual job sheets with their job start time, job end time and job duration time that they “guessed”. We then had administration staff re-enter those job times into our job cost system. This was a poor system and poor reporting; times on jobs were recorded highly inaccurately, the information was too late for management to do anything with, not good for basing future quotations on and they did not make factory staff accountable to their job times.
Software such as Empower Factory Productivity & Scheduling is a game changer for engineers. By using touch screens or tablets on the workshop floor jobs, factory staff and time on jobs are tracked in real time and there is visibility across the entire business; where teams and individual factory staff are at, where jobs are at, where the capacity constraints are and what conversations are needed with clients on priorities ahead of time, not after a late delivery.
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DATALOGIC ENHANCES ROBOT GUIDANCE AND TRACEABILITY
Datalogic, a leader in robotics, Industry 4.0, automatic data capture and process automation, is introducing its new Impact 12.2 software to further enhance the traceability and ease-of use of vision-guided robots and cobots used for a wide variety of pick, place and other vital production line tasks.
The new robot guidance and traceability software is available throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and incorporates a number of calibration and performance enhancements to make robot rogramming faster and simpler, as well as improve accuracy and traceability.
“With Datalogic’s ‘Impact’ 12.2 system, robots can now be deployed faster, and they are more adaptable to changing applications in dynamic industries such as warehousing, logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, transport and OEM markets,” says Bradley Weber, product marketing manager – machine vision, Datalogic.
“The latest software has been thoroughly tested in conjunction with leading robotics company Universal Robots, and has been fully approved and UR+ certified to work their robots and cobots. UR+ certification means they have the full technical support and expertise of the Universal Robots team, as well as access to their highly customisable software,” says Mr Weber.
Collaborative robots, or ‘cobots’ work harmoniously with people in production and distribution operation such as pick-and-place and production lines. Often, the robot performs repetitive tasks requiring strength or precision, while the person guides the robot to the right place, provides a part for it to pick, or performs other tasks that complement the robots programming.
According to Universal Robots, “Cobots give manufacturers access to all the benefits of advanced robotic automation, without the extra costs associated with traditional robots: difficult programming, long set-up, and shielded work cells. This makes automation affordable even for small-batch production runs and mixed product assembly.”
SOFTWARE ENHANCEMENTS
Datalogic’s latest Impact software was designed with a focus on traceability and guidance, with upgrades to performance, ease of use and flexibility, to save time and improve productivity, says Mr Weber.
Performance enhancements are provided by the new system’s calibration software, which improves the capability of pick and place applications; the locating tool to improve positional accuracy; and OCR upgrades to assist with high speed traceability applications.
Ease of use features of the new software include an intuitive system, ease of set-up and simple integration with robots, processors and cameras.
Like previous software, Impact 12.2 runs on all Datalogic’s smart cameras and MX industrial Vision Processors. By utilising the same intuitive drag and drop environment across all hardware, users can set up the vision system in less time and share vision programs between Smart Cameras and Vision Processors. It also allows users to create custom user interfaces in minutes to monitor the line.
Flexibility is important to automated processes, and the latest software can solve many applications simultaneously – such as guidance, gauging, inspection and identification – as well as solving variations of the same application.
Datalogic’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can read characters in trickier locations or on harder to read surfaces, such as the side of a metal housing, the VIN number on the frame of a car or the date/lot code on a package. The tool can be set up to read characters of different fonts or text that is slanted, slightly blurred or displayed on a noisy background.
“Key customer advantages include swift and simple calibration, reducing learning and programming times and accurate robot guidance, all with full end-to-end traceability to ensure product quality and transparency,” says Mr Weber.
Datalogic’s latest Impact software platform integrates with more than 100 vision tools, and runs on all smart cameras and industrial vision processors for any vision application and inspection requirements.
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ALFA LAVAL – EFFICIENT SELF-PRIMING PUMPS FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
Alfa Laval’s LKH Prime 40 is the latest new addition to the range. Not only does the hygienic, self-priming pump offer high energy efficiency and versatility, it also allows for significantly reduced noise levels and easy maintenance. In utilising the Alfa Laval LKH Prime 40, performance is greatly increased, including the ability to reach a flowrate up to 110 m3/hr and head of 115m.
Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialised products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling.
The company’s equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimising the performance of their processes. The solutions help them to heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol
Alfa Laval’s products are also used in power plants, aboard ships, oil and gas exploration, in the mechanical engineering industry, in the mining industry and for wastewater treatment, as well as for comfort climate and refrigeration applications.
IMPROVED ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Using the combination of advanced air-screw technology, optimized impeller and casing geometry, Alfa Laval LKH Prime exceeds industry expectations for efficient operation, reduced energy consumption and CO₂ footprint. Alfa Laval LKH Prime is engineered to meet the most stringent requirements of the hygienic industries. It is EHEDG certified and authorised to carry the 3-A symbol.
A HIGHLY VERSATILE SOLUTION
Characterised by reliability for improved operational productivity and designed for Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) duties containing entrained air, Alfa Laval LKH Prime can also pump product, potentially reducing the capital investment when designing process systems – whatever the industry.
SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED NOISE LEVELS
Quiet in operation, Alfa Laval LKH Prime reduces sound pressure levels by 80% when compared to pumps using traditional pump technologies for CIP/entrained air applications. This noise reducing feature is a smart way to improve the working environment and plant safety for employees.
EASY TO MAINTAIN
The pump is easy and cost effective to service and maintain. By sharing common parts with the Alfa Laval LKH pump range, LKH prime offers low cost of ownership and increased uptime, backed up by the security that comes from Alfa Laval’s global service network.
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MANUFACTURING OF PLASMA CUTTING EQUIPMENT “HIGHLY INFLUENCED” BY MECHANISED MOVE
The advantage of using plasma cutting equipment in delivering high-quality cuts at less preparation time has driven their demand as an indispensable industrial equipment. The adoption of plasma cutting equipment has gained traction for their consistency in delivering clean cuts with negligible dross, and across a wide range of operating temperatures. However, complex operability of plasma cutting equipment is a key challenge inhibiting its adoption. Lack of skilled professionals, high maintenance costs and limited application scope are observed as key deterrents for the adoption of plasma cutting equipment.
During this forecast period, the global plasma cutting equipment market is assessed to expand at a moderate pace, reflecting a value CAGR of 4%. In the report, it has been estimated that the global sales of plasma cutting equipment will bring in revenues worth nearly US$ 795 Mn.
In the due course of the forecast period, the report has assessed that the global plasma cutting equipment market will witness a growing adoption of mechanized equipment. In 2017, over US$ 280 Mn worth of manual plasma cutting equipment were sold worldwide. However, their adoption is set to dwindle in the latter half of the forecast period. By the end of 2026, global sales of plasma cutting equipment will translate into revenues worth over US$ 445 Mn, registering a steady value CAGR over the forecast period. Operational advantages of mechanised plasma cutting equipment will continue to drive their demand in the upcoming years.
Heavy equipment fabrication applications of plasma cutting equipment to remain highly profitable.
Through 2026, majority of plasma cutting equipment manufacturers will be developing equipment that can serve a suite of cutting applications. Heavy equipment fabrication applications of plasma cutting equipment are expected to account for the largest cut of overall revenue pie. By the end of 2026, plasma cutting equipment worth over US$ 170 Mn will be used in fabrication of heavy equipment across the globe. The report also reveals that the demand for plasma cutting equipment in shipbuilding & off-shore industry will gain traction. Over the forecast period, the shipbuilding & off-shore applications of plasma cutting equipment are expected to reflect fastest revenue growth at a CAGR of 5.1%.
Key Stakeholders in Global Plasma Cutting Equipment Market
Leading manufacturers of plasma cutting equipment have been identified and profiled in this report, Companies namely, Colfax Corporation, Ador Elding Ltd., Flow International Corporation, Matheson tri-gas Inc., Lincoln Electric Company, Illinois Tool Works Inc., Barton International Inc., Linde group, GCE holding AB, and Fronius international GMBH have been recognized as key players in the global plasma cutting equipment market. In the years to follow, several manufacturers of plasma cutting equipment will be introducing high-speed cutting equipment. Moreover, new technologies will be incorporated by market players to extend their capabilities in procuring plasma materials, which will enable their products to facilitate excellent cut quality.
These insights are based on a report on Plasma Cutting Equipment Market by Persistence Market Research.
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YOUNG WOMEN ENCOURAGED TO ENGINEER A CAREER
Recently she spoke about her experiences to a group of female students keen to follow in her footsteps.
Bella was one of four guest speakers at the Women in Engineering Canterbury (WiE Can) event hosted by the University of Canterbury (UC).
WiE Can gives 60 female Year 13 students from high schools across New Zealand the opportunity to find out more about engineering by attending a series of hands-on workshops over five days, culminating in today’s session hearing from high-profile female engineers.
Bella, who graduated from UC in 2010 with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honours and is now working for Aecom as Associate Director of Buildings and Places, says engineering offers a varied and exciting career path.
She advises young women considering the profession to “go for it”. “It’s such a rewarding career. So many of the world’s most pressing issues need smart young women to solve them and drive human innovation forward.
“It’s rare in today’s work environment to have such a tangible outcome to your efforts, such as a beautiful building or public space, so it’s very satisfying to be able to see the results of your work.”
Bella spent four years living in New York working on one of the United States’ largest private real estate developments, the Hudson Yards project in Manhattan, and she is currently working on the City Rail Link in Auckland.
The 30-year-old says there is a certain amount of “proving yourself” as a young, female engineer, particularly in the construction world. “People can be very quick to write you off as inexperienced or out of your depth and it takes time to earn respect. Young males face this challenge too but often to a lesser extent.”
Other WiE Can speakers were Transpower Chief Executive Alison Andrew, water resources engineer India Eiloart, and Larissa Wilson, a UC mechanical engineering student who recently spent two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, the United States.
UC College of Engineering Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Jan Evans-Freeman says the WiE Can initiative is part of the university’s commitment to boosting the number of female engineering graduates and increasing diversity in the profession.
“Often young women have skills and interests that are very relevant to engineering but it might not be on their radar as a career option or they’re not sure how viable it is. The aim of this event is to let them know they are wanted and there are amazing possibilities in this field.
“We’ve invited these four speakers because they’re all brilliant role models and show the diverse career paths and opportunities available to females who choose engineering.”
Anna Manning, 18, from Whakatane, attended WiE Can last year and says it played a major role in her decision to enrol in Forest Engineering at UC in 2020.
“Engineering was one of my ideas but I never really knew exactly what it involved, and I didn’t know there were so many different types of engineering, and different career pathways you can follow.
“I’m quite focused on the outdoors, the environment and sustainability, so Forest Engineering really appeals to me and I hadn’t even known about it until WiE Can.
“The workshops gave me a clearer idea of what I would be doing on a day to day basis in an engineering career which was really cool.”
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KIWI TECH ON THE WORLD STAGE
Callaghan Innovation’s agritech group manager, Simon Yarrow
New Zealand innovators and leaders showcased their technologies on the world stage at a high-profile international event recently in Melbourne.
Over 60 Kiwi companies attended evokeAG to create export and partnership opportunities and build on New Zealand’s reputation as a leading agricultural innovator.
The event focussed on innovation in agriculture, drawing delegates from the entire agriculture ecosystem from across the Asia Pacific region and internationally.
The trip was led by Callaghan Innovation in partnership with NZTE, Agritech New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The New Zealand startup sector for agritech and new food has been ranked in the top 10 in the world and has the potential to become a multi-billion-dollar sector by 2025 says Simon Yarrow, Callaghan Innovation’s Agritech group manager.
“We’ve got a strong mix of Kiwi startups, larger firms, research institutes, investors, commercialisation experts, and ecosystem connectors joining our mission this year,” says Yarrow.
“That’s a reflection of New Zealand’s agritech ecosystem being more advanced than most, though still young.
“We’re seeing real potential for global success in robotics and automation, cloud-based platforms to manage day-to-day tasks, environmentally friendly pesticides and fertilisers, and visual artificial intelligence for animal health.
“But what we don’t have is access to the same level of investment and global channels to market. It’s why our innovators need to go the extra mile to build these global partnerships.”
The group of innovators and leaders met with investors, visited research institutes and farms in the Mildura region while confirming their products and strategies in the Australian market.
Trade commissioner Vanessa O’Neill says New Zealanders have always had the ability to turn local agritech solutions into global success stories.
“That means accelerating the growth of agritech innovations from Kiwi start-ups into scalable, investable and global companies.
“Global partnerships are second nature in New Zealand business. As Australia is New Zealand’s largest two-way trading partner it makes sense to look for opportunities to work together and take our agritech advantages to the rest of the world. Proven agritech innovations from New Zealand, boosted by Australian resources and networks, are a winning combination in global markets.” says O’Neill.
New Zealand speakers included Mitali Purohit from Callaghan Innovation, David Downs from NZTE, Darryn Keiller from Autogrow, Steve Saunders from Robotics Plus and Dean Tilyard from The Factory.
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Classic racing meeting celebrates local legend
With a grid full of the F5000 cars, the new-look annual classic racing meeting has attracted bumper entries across all classes, from all over New Zealand to Invercargill’s Teretonga Park.
Begg built several F5000 cars, including the FM2 then FM4, FM5 and 018. The 018, as originally raced by Jim Murdoch, and ex David Oxton and Allan McCully FM5s, are on display at the new George Begg Bunker in the Motorcycle Mecca building in Invercargill’s Tay Street.
Current owners, Terry and Tim Rush, are also bringing the Begg FM4, originally raced by Geoff Mardon then David Oxton, with them to display at Teretonga Park over the weekend.
Before New Zealand and Australia adopted the stock-block 302 cu in ‘wings-and-slicks’ formula that became known here as Formula 5000, and Formula A in the United States, the 2.5 litre ‘Tasman’ formula meant that if drivers wanted to compete they had to buy an existing ex-works car.
The move to a stock-block engine formula opened the series up to an all-new group of talented all-round designer/builder/drivers like Graham McRae and Australia’s Frank Matich, and designer/builder/entrants like George Begg, and Garrie Cooper in Adelaide.
Set to contest the fourth round of this season’s SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at the meeting are 16 restored and race-prepared Formula 5000 racing cars, including the Leda LT27s designed by Wellington-born Graham McRae and now owned by Queenstown man Alistair Hey and his partner Vicki.
Driving the blue-and-yellow-striped white 004 car (#94) is runaway series points leader, Michael Collins from Christchurch, while behind the wheel of the STP-liveried Leda LT27 001 (#22) is Southland’s own LeRoy Stevenson.
Two later models but visually identical McRae GM1s belonging to three-time former series champ Steve Ross (#5) from Dunedin and series regular Aaron Burson from Auckland will also be on the grid this weekend.
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UC students engineer medical solutions in Tonga
Sponsored by Callaghan Innovation summer research grants, the seven UC Biomedical Engineering students are learning how to repair medical devices on campus in Christchurch, before they left for Tonga.
UC Senior Lecturer in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Dr Debbie Munro is leading the initiative. Earlier this year, UC launched an annual biomedical engineering work experience in the Pacific Islands where students can combine their engineering skills with hands-on training for repairing critically needed hospital equipment.
“We’ve selected our interns and are in the midst of preparing them to leave for Tonga. We will be repairing hospital equipment for ten weeks while also developing the framework for a training programme for local people to continue the repair and maintenance work in Tonga,” Dr Munro says.
Dr Munro is the supervisor for the first five weeks and UC Electronics Technician Julian Phillips, who received a staff development award to attend, will take over supervision for the second half of the internship in January.
“I am super excited to be partnering with Callaghan Innovation, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and Take My Hands to send these students to Tonga for a global work experience where they can apply their biomedical engineering skills towards improving healthcare in developing countries,” Dr Munro says.
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X-Frame for waste free buildings gets commercialisation boost
Victoria University of Wellington PhD candidate Ged Finch is fast tracking the commercialisation of his X-Frame structural frame solution for waste free buildings with support from the KiwiNet Emerging Innovator Programme. The game-changing framing system can be disassembled and re-used at the end of a building’s useful life.
Finch’s design, a self-braced interlocking wood design which clips together eliminating the need for single-use fixings, has the potential to eliminate waste and reduce the amount of raw materials being used by the building industry. Approximately half of all New Zealand’s waste—about 1.6 million tonnes every year—is generated by the construction sector.
“The current widespread use of adhesive-based fixings and single-life materials means that building a single new home will create about four tonnes of waste during construction, and even more when it’s eventually demolished and taken to the landfill,” says Finch.
Finch, who has been working with Viclink, Victoria University of Wellington’s commercialisation office, also secured a place on KiwiNet’s Emerging Innovator programme to help commercialise the green architectural solution.
Every single component of Finch’s X-Frame design, cut by a computer-controlled router, can be disassembled and reused, so no waste is produced at any stage of a building’s lifecycle. The clip-together design allows any type of structure—floors, walls, ceilings—to be rapidly assembled and disassembled many times over, using unskilled labour and a bare minimum of tools, akin to flat-pack furniture. Adding doors or windows at a later stage is simple, and when kids leave home: “they could literally take their rooms with them, as our modular design also clips onto standard framing.”
Dr James Hutchinson, ceo of KiwiNet, says: “Ged’s vision is to transition the building sector from a linear (take, make, dispose) economy to a circular economy—where materials are reused in endless cycles. His approach could set a new benchmark for sustainable design, and it makes great commercial sense. KiwiNet’s Investment Committee saw an opportunity to support Ged with expertise, networks and funding to do specialised work required to demonstrate his ideas at scale, and to assist with the commercialisation pathway from concept to new architectural solution.”
Finch came up with his idea during his Masters year and, under the guidance of Guy Marriage—Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture—has taken it into his PhD (with additional supervision from Dr Antony Pelosi and Dr Morten Gjerde).
Viclink has been an amazing support,” says Finch. “During my Masters, Liam Sutton—one of Viclink’s commercialisation managers—brought in an IP specialist to talk to me about how to protect my intellectual property and also connected me to a circular economy start-up funder.”
Finch says Viclink introducing him to KiwiNet has had one of the biggest impacts to date as it has given him access to a great network of expertise and experience, his own business mentor and funding to further develop his product.
“I’m using the funding to carry out specialised work required to finalise engineering designs for the earthquake resistant hold down fixings for the walls and interior,” says Finch. “KiwiNet’s support is also helping me to test the structural integrity and weather-tightness of the X-frame product, both critical features for any future commercialised product. They’ve also arranged for me to meet with scientists from Scion who are developing natural adhesives from forest waste products and Auckland based company Fastmount which manufactures reusable clips that connect interior wall linings with the structure. These materials perfectly complement the X-Frame technology—the networking is the magic!”
He says that even though X-Frame is innately earthquake stable because of its design geometry, independent structural testing is crucial in getting his product to market. His PhD scholarship funded by the Building Research Levy (BRANZ) is also assisting with the project, with additional funding also provided for structural testing of the prototype product.
Finch is currently building a small (10m2) prefabricated prototype dwelling in Auckland to demonstrate his ideas at scale and to inform market viability. He believes the completed prototype will be New Zealand’s most sophisticated ‘circular’ building.
Finch says, “This prototype build is a major step as it is the first time we will have built the entire wall system with cladding, cavity battens, insulation and an internal lining. Unitec Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture have helped out by providing robotic fabrication facilities to create the frame – which means we’ll be able to have the entire building water-tight in less than one week on-site. We’re cladding the assembled X-Frame in an entirely reusable, chemical free external cladding system centered around a naturally preserved timber product being developed by Abodo Wood Ltd.”
Finch was recently invited to present his concept at the Advanced Building Skins (ABS) conference in Bern, Switzerland. He says this was recognition from the international building industry that major changes are needed to curb waste production.
Finch says X-Frame could totally transform the way we think about buildings. “My ‘blue-sky’ objective is to build a housing development with a complete circular economy design—where all building materials can be quickly recovered at the end of a structure’s life and either efficiently recycled or directly reused without any negative environmental impacts.”
The KiwiNet Emerging Innovator Programme is open to early career researchers based at universities, Crown Research Institutes and other publicly funded research organisations across New Zealand. Programme recipients receive expert legal advice from KiwiNet corporate partner MinterEllisonRuddWatts and IP advice from Baldwins, as well as funding from the Norman Barry Foundation, owner of the Quality Hotel Parnell Limited, K1W1 and PreSeed Accelerator Funding, from MBIE.
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Sheet metal fabrication that packs plenty of punch
Representing “only the world’s leading and most reliable brands”, Punch Tooling NZ brings its considerable knowledge of manufacturing processes to ensure the implementation of the right plant and materials, fully installed and calibrated with ongoing technical service and support.
“Our team of service engineers can support what we sell. Due to inquiries from customer, we have partnered with Mebius Australia to sell the Penta Fiber laser range. This includes large format laser up to 8 meters in length and 20kw power,” says the company.
Penta also have developed the hand-held laser welder. Punch Tooling says that hese machines will be available in 2020 and represent a leap forward in welding with little or no clean-up and very fast welding speed.
“We also have the DeraTech range of Press brakes, these machines are quality press brakes with press frame monitoring to compensate for frame stretch as the tonnage increases.”
This combined with automatic crowning and an easy to operate CNC controller can now give the same bending accuracy as higher priced machines at a fraction of the cost.
“Penta lasers combined with the DeraTech range of press brakes give our customer a quality range of machinery at competitive prices. With 40 years’ experience in the field, Punch Tooling knows your industry and will help you improve processes and overcome any problem.”
Punch Tooling represents Wilson Tools, ToolsPress, Haeger, Pem Fastners, Coastone, Penta Laser and DeraTech.
“We can supply the right machinery at the right price. Give us a call.”
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JOB SCHEDULING
Working smarter; that’s what it’s all about. NZ Engineer News has approached three of the most experienced business consultants working in the New Zealand engineering space to advise us on job scheduling for engineers. Here’s what they had to say:
IAN FEATHERSTONE, OWNER OF GLASS HALF FULL
I advise on the importance of accurate scheduling, using software. Most of the businesses in the engineering sector are adding value with time and materials. The service and profit risks from estimating and managing materials is reasonably straight forward, especially for those with an engineering mind.
Managing time and tasks is another matter altogether. We can all calculate or estimate the expected time a task or a group of tasks should take for a particular job, however it gets more complicated when the business grows to a size were multiple jobs are happening at the same time, with shared resources and limited available working hours. Add to this the constantly shifting timelines, job variations, non-workdays and inevitable rush jobs, the task of organising and matching the right people to the right job, with minimum downtime can, become overwhelming and time consuming.
I have found that people with a logical or engineering mindset can quickly understand and implement scheduling software to help them plan and manage people, tasks, capacity and most importantly make promises to customers that they can keep and minimise downtime so the business can maximise the amount of “billable hours” it can charge out to increase the bottom line.
If you are considering scheduling or time management software, then I recommend you look for a system that has a demonstrated track record of working effectively for the engineering sector where 100% of the clients using the software are engineers and other custom manufacturers, where by default the software has all the necessary functionality to cope with all the complexities that occur on factory floors. The latest scheduling softwares use tablets on the factory floor, where factory staff start and finish their jobs on their tablets which enables automatic updating of job status and live and accurate scheduling. The software needs to be easy to use, provide clear, simple information and reports to your people, is accessible from anywhere and capture budget to actual time data that can be used for payroll and job costing, thus giving you feedback to improve your processes. Some provide excellent reports from which you can give your team feedback to help them keep improving.
DAVID LAWRENCE, OWNER OF LEAN MANUFACTURING
I consult to over 140 engineers and other jobbing manufacturers throughout New Zealand and Australia on scheduling, shop floor productivity and lean manufacturing. I can say that the substantial majority of engineers still schedule manually using spreadsheets and do not schedule well at all.
My short hand advice to owners, production managers and management teams of engineering firms that I consult to is six fold;
1 Stop using spreadsheets to schedule work. Spreadsheets are very time consuming, job status must be assessed and recorded manually then entered by staff or management manually, and in most case sequencing of tasks and capacity of tasks is not considered so the forward work schedule is not accurate
2 Invest in tablets for your factory floor and labour management and scheduling software to track daily and weekly downtime and manufacturing time
3 Use only scheduling software that where jobs and tasks are updated live from factory floor tablets and where individual staff register task started and task finished in real time
4 Use only scheduling software developed solely for engineering and other custom one off manufacturing businesses
5 Four minimum requirements of scheduling software; task/process capacity reporting, Job list viewable on calender, drag and drop of Tasks and Jobs on the calender and Gantt charts
6 Factory floor Job and Task status is ideally viewed live on 50 inch TV monitors on the factory walls and office walls for all factory staff, administration staff and management to see continuously throughout the day
I use ‘Empower Factory Productivity and Scheduling Software’ developed here in Auckland, NZ
WARWICK RUSSELL, OWNER OF SMETRIC INSIGHTS
Smetric Insights helps make driving business performance easy. Our focus is on developing software and interfaces that enable custom reporting for Engineers, custom product Manufacturers and other businesses. We provide owners and management teams with tailored, high-quality reporting which includes accurate figures that provide greater visibility of work in progress, job and task requirements, scheduling, true manufacturing time and true labour costs.
I have also owned two engineering businesses with over 100 staff. So, I know and fully appreciate all of the challenges around scheduling to meet changes in customer demands with quantities, timing and variations. Then there are all the challenges to manage breakdowns, unexpected downtime and jobs taking longer than expected.
Historically, in an attempt to try and schedule jobs, the Engineers used manual job cards on planning boards and Excel spread sheets. These were all a bit of a nightmare with different versions of the truth, no good visibility across the shop on where things were at and the challenges of rescheduling the jobs manually on the board.
To work out job times and job costs, at the end of the working day, the Engineers used to have factory staff fill in manual job sheets with their job start time, job end time and job duration time that they “guessed”. We then had administration staff re-enter those job times into our job cost system. This was a poor system and poor reporting; times on jobs were recorded highly inaccurately, the information was too late for management to do anything with, not good for basing future quotations on and they did not make factory staff accountable to their job times.
Software such as Empower Factory Productivity & Scheduling is a game changer for engineers. By using touch screens or tablets on the workshop floor jobs, factory staff and time on jobs are tracked in real time and there is visibility across the entire business; where teams and individual factory staff are at, where jobs are at, where the capacity constraints are and what conversations are needed with clients on priorities ahead of time, not after a late delivery.
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DATALOGIC ENHANCES ROBOT GUIDANCE AND TRACEABILITY
The new robot guidance and traceability software is available throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and incorporates a number of calibration and performance enhancements to make robot rogramming faster and simpler, as well as improve accuracy and traceability.
“With Datalogic’s ‘Impact’ 12.2 system, robots can now be deployed faster, and they are more adaptable to changing applications in dynamic industries such as warehousing, logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, transport and OEM markets,” says Bradley Weber, product marketing manager – machine vision, Datalogic.
“The latest software has been thoroughly tested in conjunction with leading robotics company Universal Robots, and has been fully approved and UR+ certified to work their robots and cobots. UR+ certification means they have the full technical support and expertise of the Universal Robots team, as well as access to their highly customisable software,” says Mr Weber.
Collaborative robots, or ‘cobots’ work harmoniously with people in production and distribution operation such as pick-and-place and production lines. Often, the robot performs repetitive tasks requiring strength or precision, while the person guides the robot to the right place, provides a part for it to pick, or performs other tasks that complement the robots programming.
According to Universal Robots, “Cobots give manufacturers access to all the benefits of advanced robotic automation, without the extra costs associated with traditional robots: difficult programming, long set-up, and shielded work cells. This makes automation affordable even for small-batch production runs and mixed product assembly.”
SOFTWARE ENHANCEMENTS
Datalogic’s latest Impact software was designed with a focus on traceability and guidance, with upgrades to performance, ease of use and flexibility, to save time and improve productivity, says Mr Weber.
Performance enhancements are provided by the new system’s calibration software, which improves the capability of pick and place applications; the locating tool to improve positional accuracy; and OCR upgrades to assist with high speed traceability applications.
Ease of use features of the new software include an intuitive system, ease of set-up and simple integration with robots, processors and cameras.
Like previous software, Impact 12.2 runs on all Datalogic’s smart cameras and MX industrial Vision Processors. By utilising the same intuitive drag and drop environment across all hardware, users can set up the vision system in less time and share vision programs between Smart Cameras and Vision Processors. It also allows users to create custom user interfaces in minutes to monitor the line.
Flexibility is important to automated processes, and the latest software can solve many applications simultaneously – such as guidance, gauging, inspection and identification – as well as solving variations of the same application.
Datalogic’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can read characters in trickier locations or on harder to read surfaces, such as the side of a metal housing, the VIN number on the frame of a car or the date/lot code on a package. The tool can be set up to read characters of different fonts or text that is slanted, slightly blurred or displayed on a noisy background.
“Key customer advantages include swift and simple calibration, reducing learning and programming times and accurate robot guidance, all with full end-to-end traceability to ensure product quality and transparency,” says Mr Weber.
Datalogic’s latest Impact software platform integrates with more than 100 vision tools, and runs on all smart cameras and industrial vision processors for any vision application and inspection requirements.
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ALFA LAVAL – EFFICIENT SELF-PRIMING PUMPS FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialised products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling.
The company’s equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimising the performance of their processes. The solutions help them to heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol
Alfa Laval’s products are also used in power plants, aboard ships, oil and gas exploration, in the mechanical engineering industry, in the mining industry and for wastewater treatment, as well as for comfort climate and refrigeration applications.
IMPROVED ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Using the combination of advanced air-screw technology, optimized impeller and casing geometry, Alfa Laval LKH Prime exceeds industry expectations for efficient operation, reduced energy consumption and CO₂ footprint. Alfa Laval LKH Prime is engineered to meet the most stringent requirements of the hygienic industries. It is EHEDG certified and authorised to carry the 3-A symbol.
A HIGHLY VERSATILE SOLUTION
Characterised by reliability for improved operational productivity and designed for Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) duties containing entrained air, Alfa Laval LKH Prime can also pump product, potentially reducing the capital investment when designing process systems – whatever the industry.
SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED NOISE LEVELS
Quiet in operation, Alfa Laval LKH Prime reduces sound pressure levels by 80% when compared to pumps using traditional pump technologies for CIP/entrained air applications. This noise reducing feature is a smart way to improve the working environment and plant safety for employees.
EASY TO MAINTAIN
The pump is easy and cost effective to service and maintain. By sharing common parts with the Alfa Laval LKH pump range, LKH prime offers low cost of ownership and increased uptime, backed up by the security that comes from Alfa Laval’s global service network.
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