FABTECH® exhibitors expand offerings of software, machines, and capabilities

“The hardware is improving, but the software is improving much faster,” said Andrew Dodd, sales manager for equipment manufacturer BLM Group USA, discussing the company’s products at the FABTECH^® expo in November. It would be difficult to find a briefer and more accurate summary of the state of manufacturing technology. In the era of CNC, ERP systems, Internet 4.0, and Big Data, software is the key to capturing, generating, distributing, and using the information manufacturers need to analyze and improve their operations.

Although they sound complex and more than a little abstract, the ideas behind Internet 4.0 or Big Data are just another stage in the evolution of data’s role in manufacturing. Just as manual setups were replaced by NC and later CNC, (introducing the importance of using electronic data to the shop floor) and ERP systems were introduced to integrate the office systems, Big Data brings a systematic and comprehensive approach to data gathering and management on the shop floor.

Understanding Big Data

Already known for various programs for developing parts and programming its machines—VGP3D, PROTUBE, ARTUBE, ARTCUT, and PartViewer—BLM also offers BLMelements, a program that allows its users to program and manage all of the company’s machines. Although tube was the main focus throughout the company’s history, BLMelements facilitates work with metal in any form—sheet, plate, tube, pipe, hydroformed components, and stampings—so whether the process involves designing a component, cutting it with a saw or laser system, bending it, or forming it, the software handles the part from beginning to end.

LVD likewise developed software that helps manufacturers understand and tame the data that supports Industry 4.0. In addition to manufacturing a range of fabrication equipment, the company offers software that integrates ERP and CAM software to optimize flow and processes.

“The latest version of CADMAN software takes the mystery out of Industry 4.0,” said Matt Fowles, group marketing manager for LVD. “First, you need to have data; second, you need to use it. LVD’s software marries these concepts. It helps the user to gather the right data, manage it, and use it. It can be as simple as tracking the number of tooling changes per day on each machine.” If that number is too high, it’s time to look at reordering the work flow, sequencing jobs to reduce tooling changeovers.

“Another product in LVD’s software portfolio, named Touch-i4, helps operators to sort parts from nested sheets, feeding back to the centralized database as it detects defective parts,” he said. “The job-scheduling module can then automatically place parts into the next available sheet for nesting.”

“The big picture is the flow of data, which leads to optimizing the flow of parts,” Fowles said.

Although some of the concepts—tracking parts with QR codes, affixing radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, and going paperless—emerged in the last two decades or so, equipment manufacturer Mazak Optonics Corp. has been at it for more than 35 years. As it developed automation and data management systems for its own use, it would make them available to its customers.

“Mazak developed a networked, automated factory in 1981,” said Tim O’Donnell, the company’s software supervisor for offline 2-D and 3-D management, referring to the company’s flexible manufacturing system (FMS). When used in conjunction with a laser system, the FMS—which reduces the time needed to load raw material and eliminates the time needed to program the machine—provides a beam-on time up to 92 percent (whereas a shuttle table provides a beam-on time around 52 percent, according to the company).

Other iterations were the CIM Factory (1987), Cyber Factory (1998), and recently iSMART Factory^™. Used at its showcase location in Oguchi, Japan, the system has software that monitors and executes processes on a variety of machines, including CNC, non-CNC, and manual. The system is based on MTConnect®, an open-source manufacturing protocol that collects and shares information in a common format, such as XML, regardless of the machine’s manufacturer.

The company uses MTConnect and its SmartBox technology to connect machines in its manufacturing facility in Florence, Ky., O’Donnell said. SmartBox can connect new or existing equipment and acts as a firewall, watching for external threats (malware) and blocking outside access to the factory floor.

O’Donnell described a manufacturing process involving machines and software, and little in the way of operator intervention: After cutting a part, the laser etches it with a QR code and a conveyor sends it to a bin. When those parts arrive at the next station, a press brake, the machine reads the QR code, pulls up the program, sets the backgauges, and before long the machine is ready to bend those parts.

Every machine has a dashboard that displays its productivity, and that data is fed to a department-wide dashboard that shows overall productivity and breaks it down, operator by operator. It can report essentially anything and everything that the machine’s software monitors. A machine that stops too frequently because alarms keep tripping might indicate that the operator needs a little more training; a machine that doesn’t initiate an order two minutes before a shift change might indicate an operator that needs a little more motivation. Of course, it’s not necessarily a matter of monitoring the operators but rather tracking down and eliminating bottlenecks to improve flow.

Machine builder TRUMPF demonstrated the use of Big Data at the 2016 FABTECH expo in Las Vegas. Booth visitors were invited to create a custom-made souvenir made while they toured the booth. After selecting a handful of features to customize a small-scale model Jeep® made from sheet metal, each visitor could monitor his order’s progress with an app on his phone as the order went from machine to machine and finally to the packaging station.

In 2017 the company applied that concept to a much larger scale when it opened its new facility in Hoffman Estates, Ill. (near Chicago), which the company demonstrated by a video link to McCormick Place. Designated the TRUMPF Smart Factory, it produces parts without direct labor and little indirect labor. Self-guided carts move raw materials to the machines, and loaders, unloaders, and conveyors move parts from machine to machine as they progress through the facility. Orders are placed and monitored via an app from anyone in the TRUMPF organization anywhere in the world. A paperless system, it relies on QR codes to identify and track each part as it flows through the factory.

The Big Future of Big Data

Industry 4.0 is making great strides in manufacturing, and it’s not difficult to envision the supply chain as a single, seamless system that runs on information, perhaps starting at the mill and ending at the finished-goods stage. Although small fabrication shops don’t necessarily use ERP systems and Big Data, that time will come as the manufacturing supply chain is reinforced by the manufacturing information chain.

A typical fabrication shop, one that has fewer than 100 employees, might run just fine using paper and little else, but it risks falling behind and never catching up, said Adria Haines, director of Lantek USA.

“Many companies respond to requests for quote in less than 24 hours,” she said. “If you need three days to work up a quote, you’re probably responding to the RFQ after the order has already been submitted to one of your competitors.”

Going from a paper-based system with manual entry to a fully functioning ERP system with full connectivity to every machine is too much in one step, she said, but fabrication shops can get started on planning for Industry 4.0 right away.

“Get a sheet of paper and write down every step an order goes through,” Haines said. “Not just the steps on the shop floor, but the entire company.” It might start with a quote written on paper with a pen, then entered into a spreadsheet to create a bill of materials, then drawn in CAD, then keyed into a CNC system to program the machine. That’s four entries to make one part.

You want to go from art to part in one step,” she said, referring to entering every order just once. This is the first step in preparing to use Big Data and, Haines acknowledged, the most difficult step. The subsequent steps, which might involve hardware upgrades and implementing new software, are relatively easy because they don’t change the way the company does business.

A key in making this change is to use a production order for each part, Haines said. Information associated with each production order can be affiliated with a bar code or, better still, a QR code. This information includes the material and grade, the customer’s purchase order number, your company’s order number, and every other detail that accompanies an order. A single, comprehensive entry replaces several entries, paving the way for efficiency, consistency, and connectivity.

Haines cautions that future software programs geared toward interoperability and ease of use aren’t the common types of today, executables that run on computers, but software as a service (SAAS) programs, which run on web browsers or on the cloud and are easier to update and maintain than executables.

In essence, the software creates a database of parts—a single database—and makes this information available to the company’s ERP system. Such systems can compare the nesting of parts in various material sizes and select the size that uses the material most efficiently; update the raw material price every time a repeat order comes in; and allow a fabricator’s customer to take a peek at the inventory levels. “If a big OEM can access your system and verify that you have the inventory on-hand, you’re more likely to get the order,” Haines said.

The future involves predictive analytics. “If the software determines that your stainless steel consumption shot up 20 percent in one year, it can alert you to this to help you prepare by ordering appropriate amounts of raw material,” she said.

Improvements in Technology—Here and Now

While some fabricators aren’t yet ready to take the plunge into the data collection and analysis afforded by Industry 4.0, they still could find plenty of innovations on the expo floor.

“We have better interfaces than ever before, which helps with the skills gap,” said BLM’s Dodd. Known for making large-diameter machines—the LT24 cuts tube up to 24 inches in diameter—the company displayed an LT8.10, a 3-D cutting machine that can be outfitted for CO2 or fiber-optic cutting.

“The latest model is equipped with more boost for bending tighter-radius bends and heavier wall thicknesses,” Dodd said. Designed and built on a modular concept, it’s available with various loader capacities to suit a variety of applications. Bundle-loading from the back of the machine facilitates series production; a conveyor on the front allows the user to break into a production run to cut a small number of tubes in a pinch.

You don’t have to look for the latest, most modern machines to find improvements in hardware. You can start at the heart of the fabrication industry, looking at conventional, press-driven processes to see advancements that have changed the way fabrication gets done.

The foundation of metal fabrication is a hydraulic press that drives forming or shearing tools, and the enduring appeal of such machines is illustrated by the products Innovo Corp offers.

“Our customers cover the entire spectrum of metal fabrication,” said Application Engineer Ron Bochat. “Our machines are used for projects as simple as making holes in fenceposts to forming complex aerospace components,” he said. A bona fide tool- and diemaker, Bochat has spent his entire career designing tooling systems for such applications.

“Across the board, fabricators are trying to reduce labor, reduce operations, and save some money, and a well-designed tool and die system can help them do all three,” he said.

While some competing technologies are newer and have an edge in versatility, for many applications a hydraulic press is the fastest machine available, Bochat said.

“When you get into part quantities around 250,000 annually, many other technologies can’t keep up,” he said. “For a lot of punching and piercing applications, nothing beats the productivity of a press. Many companies are using this technology to bring work back from China.”

While many tool and die sets are developed and manufactured to perform a single operation, combining processes in a single die set is a way to improve the capability of this technology. For an experienced tool-and diemaker, it’s not difficult. It just takes a bit of expertise and ingenuity. Depending on the process and die design, a cam-actuated unit can accomplish three or four processes in a single stroke. It’s not only faster, but it delivers a better part because the part’s features have just one set of tolerances rather than three or four.

“When you use fewer strokes, you get a better part,” Bochat said.

“You don’t change the tooling,” Bochat said. “It’s a cartridge—you remove the entire cartridge and install the next one and you’re ready to run the next job.”

Bender manufacturer Schwarze-Robitec company displayed a CNC ETBMR, a bending machine that handles tube and pipe up to 4 in. OD. The company’s nomenclature describes the machine’s capabilities: E for electric, TB for transport boost, and MR for multiradius. The machine on display also offered multistack capability, meaning it was capable of roll bending and rotary draw bending. Like many equipment vendors, the company provides a large number of options on its machines—tube length optimization to minimize scrap, which is especially helpful when running large part volumes or expensive material; cutoff on the bender to eliminate a subsequent operation; and quick tool unlocking (clamps rather than screws) for companies that focus on short runs and do frequent changeovers.

The company also provided a reminder that, despite the dazzling advancements in software and hardware, fabricators rarely need all the bells and whistles, but the right combination of bells and whistles.

“Some want all the options,” said Sales Manager Philipp Knobloch. “We really need to evaluate the application and determine which options the customer really needs,” he said. The company’s products span a full spectrum of applications, from small diameters and light walls (automotive) to large diameters and heavy walls (power generation and shipbuilding), so it has a broad perspective on market trends. Many of its customers are specifying automation for bending.

Specifying the best combination of options takes time, but its time well spent.

“About 90 percent of the sales cycle is consulting,” said Heike Ahlers, vice president of sales and marketing at Schwarze-Robitec. “Every project is a learning process.”

“We’re seeing more use of our equipment on automated lines,” Knobloch said. “We can add options to integrate our equipment into a manufacturing process, for example by adding a robotic interface. In some instances, it’s a matter of bending and then handing the part off to a robot. In others, the controls are integrated—the bending process is incorporated with the robot’s commands,” he said.

The company also is well-versed in data collection for Industry 4.0, so it can advise its customers on what they need for gathering data from the bending machines.

BLM Group USA, www.blmgroup.com

Innovo Corp., www.innovo.us

Lantek, www.lanteksms.com

LVD Strippit, www.lvdgroup.com

Mazak Optonics Corp. www.mazakoptonics.com

Schwarze-Robitec, www.schwarze-robitec.com

TRUMPF, www.trumpf.com