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Euro Fabricators Use Hands-Off Approach
by Bob Olree
Publisher
Modern Application News
A line of turret punch presses is fed by a Night Train FMS
(background).
An automated fabrication operation using a flexible manufacturing system features the Finn-Power Night Train unit (on left) to both act as an intelligent material handling system and a production buffer to maximize fabricating machine time.
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During a recent tour of European manufacturing
plants in several countries, the commitment to automated
processes, especially for fabricating operations, was very
clear. European fabricators face similar challenges as U.S.
operations when dealing with winning in the global economy.
These are similar challenges, but not exactly the same.
Although the U.S. economy may not seem the best when viewed
from the shop floor, many of the European economies are in
far more precarious positions. Also, as employers, these
fabricators must deal with many labor practices which put
a more acute strain on their profitability than those in
the U.S. Month-long mandated vacations and significant pension
liabilities are but two differences that may make the European
rush to automation appear faster than here.
Faced with
distinct economic and business challenges, European manufacturers
and fabricators are focusing production efforts more and
more on automation to survive and compete.
One thrust of European automation is to expand production
capability without expanding physical plants or payroll.
In many countries, plant expansion is terribly involved
and costly. An example is a German toolmaker that considered
blasting away a part of a mountain to get enough level ground
for a building expansion. Adding production people simply
compounds the vacation/pension-type hurdles.
Cellular Processing
Another trend in European fabrication is the streamlining
of processes to bundle several operations into cells or systems
to avoid the added costs of shuttling in-process parts from
one machine or plant area to another. Cellular processing
certainly is not a new concept, however, many European facilities
have focused on this almost to the extreme.
A computer-controlled material
handling device is common in highly productive European
fabricating operations. These vacuum-operated devices
move material from storage
or production buffer to
machine stations and remove skeletons. |
How extreme? Many have the goal
of,
and others have accomplished, genuinely "hands-off" complete
component manufacturing. The only actual human handling
is the initial loading of the material into the system
and its unloading from machine to a truck.
As a guest of Finn-Power, a leading supplier
of automated systems and stand-alone fabrication equipment,
I
saw many of these systems in operation.
The key component of these most automated
systems is the Finn-Power Night Train flexible manufacturing
system, which provides not only raw and in-process material
handling and manipulating, but also serves as an intelligent
production buffer. Used as
a production buffer, the Night Train permits
a variety of fabrication machines in a system to operate
both unattended and at their peak production capacities.
For several fabricators, using this system aims at producing
complete product by automating a series of operations that
may include material handling, punching, bending, shearing,
and laser cutting. Obviously, by producing a complete product
rather than a variety of components, human handling is eliminated
and the resulting piece is more rigid and in-spec.
Surprisingly complex bends can be formed automatically on
unattended, CNC controlled forming equipment.
Typical of an intelligent part, this component was formed
with all bends, punches, and cuts as a single unit without
being touched while in-process. All of these value-added
forming operations are intended to produce the lowest cost
part. |
It is also produced at the lowest per part cost.
An objective for these European plants
is to produce what they refer to as intelligent parts - parts
with varying degrees of value-added work incorporated into
the part before it leaves the machine. Operations typical
of this value-added work are up-forming, tapping, marking,
and bending.
In addition to lower labor content and assemblies with fewer
parts, the system provides contract and job shop fabricators
with the flexibility to compete for a wider variety of jobs.
Adding to the flexibility are standard CNC controls for rapid
programming.
Completely automating product fabrication may seem to be
a goal achievable for only very large shops or OEMs. This
was not the case. Many smaller shops employ the system to
maximize their production time and gain flexibility.
To gain the benefits of the fabrication machines, complete
automation, such as using an FMS, is not essential.
In Italy, for example, a small, four-man shop integrated
a variety of Finn-Power forming and fabricating machines,
including a laser, an Express bender, and two stand-alone
press brakes for very small parts.
Although Modern
Applications News tightly focuses its editorial
coverage on U.S. manufacturing shops, this opportunity to
see what is actually practiced in European shops opened many
visitors' eyes and left them considering that we may not
be as advanced or ahead of the global manufacturing pack
as we would like to think.
 Reprinted
with permission.
MODERN
APPLICATION NEWS August 2003.
To obtain a copy of this article,
contact Tiina Alanko at
(847) 885 3200 or tiina@finnpower.com
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Volume
13 Issue 2 -
December 2003