For a long time now—a dozen years or more—Industry 4.0 has been a standard and a much-covered topic in the media as well as at seminars and trade shows. Arguably, much of the strength of Industry 4.0 is in the areas of connectivity and management. In fact, management stems not only from connectivity but data handling and the ability to pass “states” (like working on “Job 4335,” for instance) and information (32 out of 105 parts are blanked) from machine to shop floor to office and back again.
What Industry 4.0 does not cover includes: machine vision, robotics, material automation (including material handling, transport, load/unload functions, and even machine tending), software, artificial intelligence, cameras, sensors, and even automated conveyors and mobile robots. Many people come to the errant conclusion that it must cover these areas named above, because there is no specific exclusion of these subjects.
In 2010, if we were to have given the Industry 4.0 standards team a software package that did imaging, and said, “make sure this is covered in the standard,” they would have quickly (and probably successfully) argued that it doesn’t have much to do with bending or cutting a piece of steel. They would have been right; it was not part of the manufacturing process at the time. As a result, it was not included in Industry 4.0.
But there are many things that were not part of manufacturing a dozen years ago that we are finding extremely useful today. In another two years robots will be commonplace at work in manufacturing facilities. Vision systems have crept into the door in applications like cut accuracy, temperature-driven machine actions, part sorting, material provision to a specific machine or subsystem…the list continues to grow. And cameras are all over the place, even inside the very machine tools we use every day.
The onslaught of technology from within—and especially from without—the manufacturing and machine tool industry is just too new to be covered with older standards. The exciting part is that these technologies are about to change the business of metal manufacturing (really, all manufacturing).
Interestingly, the Fifth Wave of technology often has little to do with the core purpose of a function or even a machine tool. Take the case of a laser cutter and a thick piece of stock. Cutting rates of such materials are well known to each manufacturer. Depending on the material and the gas used to cool the cut, it is possible to damage the material by cutting it out of spec. In one laser cutter available now, a camera records the cut as the laser head moves across the piece of steel or other metal. The Fifth-Wave type of system consists of a camera, a sensor, and artificial intelligence that reads the color of the cut, determines the temperature and whether it represents a good cut.
While this system is not about the laser’s power or focus—these would be core purpose/technology items—it is equally as valuable to save avoidable downtime by managing the process using outside technology to continue working in the most optimal level possible.
The Fifth Wave is here and it has many promises. But it will take some understanding of its many components to leverage its strengths. One sure way to make the transition is to continue to learn about these exciting manufacturing technologies.
Author: Dave Brambert
Article source: https://article-realm.com/article/Business/47514-Here-comes-the-Fifth-Wave-of-manufacturing-automation.html
Reviews
Comments
Most Recent Articles
- May 15, 2024 Gift Card Market is Dazzling Worldwide and Forecast to 2031 by mansi jain
- May 15, 2024 A Comprehensive Idea about Kazan State Medical University, Russia by Mbbsinblog
- May 15, 2024 Garment Steamer Market to See Massive Growth by 2031 by mansi jain
- May 15, 2024 Excel in Medical Career by Joining MBBS in Russia! by Mbbsinblog
- May 15, 2024 AITech Interview with Bill Tennant, Chief Revenue Officer at BlueCloud by martech cubejohn
Most Viewed Articles
- 1429 hits Mist Sprayer Pumps Market Demands, Trends, Industry Analysis, Segmentation by 2032 by ellamrfr
- 736 hits Thin Wall Packaging Market to Witness Growth Acceleration by 2029 by faraz pathan
- 678 hits Air Traffic Control Equipment Market to Witness Robust Expansion by 2029 by faraz pathan
- 599 hits Air Traffic Control Equipment (ATC) Market Analysis, Size, Current Scenario and Future Prospects by faraz pathan
- 568 hits HDPE Blow Molding and Injection Molding Containers Market 2029 by faraz pathan
Popular Articles
In today’s competitive world, one must be knowledgeable about the latest online business that works effectively through seo services....
76966 Views
Are you caught in between seo companies introduced by a friend, researched by you, or advertised by a particular site? If that is the...
32010 Views
Walmart is being sued by a customer alleging racial discrimination. The customer who has filed a lawsuit against the retailer claims that it...
12428 Views
If you have an idea for a new product, you can start by performing a patent search. This will help you decide whether your idea could become the...
10452 Views
Statistics
Members | |
---|---|
Members: | 14254 |
Publishing | |
---|---|
Articles: | 59,879 |
Categories: | 202 |
Online | |
---|---|
Active Users: | 1727 |
Members: | 18 |
Guests: | 1709 |
Bots: | 4028 |
Visits last 24h (live): | 4158 |
Visits last 24h (bots): | 9054 |